Thermally activated trap charges responsible for hysteresis in multilayer MoS2 field-effect transistors

Hysteresis, which is induced by both extrinsic and intrinsic causes, is often observed in molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) field-effect transistors (FETs), and several extrinsic hysteresis effects have been reported in unpassivated bottom-gate MoS2 device structures. In this study, interface-trap-induced hysteresis and other electrical properties are examined. We experimentally investigate thermally activated trap charges near a silicon-dioxide (SiO2)-MoS2 interface that gives rise to hysteresis in a multilayer MoS2 FET in a temperature region of 10–300 K. The threshold voltage (VTH) and field-effect mobility (μFE) decrease with the increase in temperature, regardless of the gate-bias sweep direction. The hysteresis that coincides with the trend of subthreshold swing increases sharply above T = 150 K as the released charges from interface traps become dominant over the fixed charges. Based on a temperature-dependent hysteresis analysis, we discussed the activation energy of interface traps and maximum interface trap density of the fabricated multilayer MoS2 FET.