EXPLORING 2D VAN DER WAALS HETEROSTRUCTURES FOR ADVANCED ELECTRONIC AND OPTOELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS

AS SILICON-BASED SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY APPROACHES ITS FUNDAMENTAL SCALING LIMITS, THE EXPLORATION OF LOW-DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS HAS BECOME IMPERATIVE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF ELECTRONIC AND OPTOELECTRONIC SYSTEMS. THIS THESIS INVESTIGATES THE FABRICATION, ELECTRICAL, AND OPTOELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL (2D) VAN DER WAALS (VDW) HETEROSTRUCTURES AND ONE-DIMENSIONAL (1D) NANOSTRUCTURES, DEMONSTRATING THEIR POTENTIAL TO OVERCOME THE CONSTRAINTS OF TRADITIONAL MOORE AND MORE MOORE PARADIGMS. THE RESEARCH FIRST ADDRESSES THE CHALLENGES OF MATERIAL STABILITY AND CONTACTS RESISTANCE IN BLACK PHOSPHORUS (BP). BY IMPLEMENTING OPTIMIZED CAPPING STRATEGIES AND CONTACT ENGINEERING, BP-BASED DEVICES WERE FABRICATED, EXHIBITING HIGH CARRIER MOBILITY (ON THE ORDER OF 102 CM2 V-1 S-1). WHEN COMBINED WITH MOS2 IN A STAGGERED TYPE-II HETEROJUNCTION, THE SYSTEM ENABLES SELF-POWERED PHOTOVOLTAIC OPERATION, WITH AN OPEN-CIRCUIT VOLTAGE OF 75 MV AND SHORT-CIRCUIT CURRENT OF 0.12 NA, AND SIGNIFICANTLY ACCELERATED CHARGE CARRIER EXTRACTION, REDUCING RELAXATION TIME CONSTANTS COMPARED TO ISOLATED MOS2 LAYERS. TO ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL ROBUSTNESS, THE STUDY EXPLORES WS2 AND PDSE2 DEVICES AND THEIR COMBINATION. WS2/PDSE2 HETEROSTRUCTURES DEMONSTRATE A REMARKABLE MULTIFUNCTIONALITY, SERVING AS AIR-STABLE VISIBLE-LIGHT PHOTODETECTORS AND OPTOELECTRONIC PRESSURE SENSORS. THE WS2/PDSE2 HETEROSTRUCTURES ACHIEVE RESPONSE TIMES AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE FASTER THAN INDIVIDUAL WS2 DEVICES BECAUSE OF THE HIGH MOBILITY OF PDSE2. FURTHERMORE, THE EXPLOITATION OF PERSISTENT PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY (PPC) ALLOWED FOR THE EMULATION OF BIOLOGICAL SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY, WITH PAIRED-PULSE FACILITATION (PPF) AND POST-TETANIC POTENTIATION (PTP) INDEXES REACHING 140% AND 300%, RESPECTIVELY. ADDRESSING THE CRITICAL SCARCITY OF STABLE P-TYPE 2D MATERIALS, THIS WORK INVESTIGATES AN INNOVATIVE P-DOPING STRATEGY FOR MOSE2 VIA INTERFACIAL COUPLING WITH THE ANTIFERROMAGNETIC INSULATOR CROCL. THIS APPROACH ENABLES THE REALIZATION OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPLEMENTARY FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR ARCHITECTURES AND LATERAL HOMOJUNCTIONS EXHIBITING ANTI-AMBIPOLAR TRANSPORT. THESE HOMOJUNCTIONS WERE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED INTO RESISTIVE-LOAD AND CMOS INVERTERS (GAIN ≈ 1.2, TOTAL NOISE MARGINS ≈ 70%), ALONGSIDE WITH FLOATING-GATE NON-VOLATILE MULTILEVEL MEMORIES CAPABLE OF MIMICKING BIOLOGICAL ACTION POTENTIALS. ADDITIONALLY, OPTOELECTRONIC CHARACTERIZATION ACROSS THE PRISTINE AND P-DOPED MOSE2, AS WELL AS THE MOSE2 HOMOJUNCTION, REVEALED A STABLE, LINEAR PHOTORESPONSE AND A DISTINCT PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT WITHIN THE MOSE2 HOMOJUNCTION, ENABLING AUTONOMOUS, SELF-POWERED PHOTODETECTION. FINALLY, THE TRANSITION TO 1D NANOSTRUCTURES HIGHLIGHTS THE ROLE OF DIMENSIONALITY. WS2 NANOTUBES WERE FOUND TO EXHIBIT INTRINSIC AMBIPOLARITY AND ENHANCED SELF-POWERED PHOTODETECTION DUE TO CURVATURE-INDUCED STRAIN, WHILE INAS NANOWIRE INVERTERS SERVED AS A HIGH-MOBILITY PLATFORM FOR 1D LOGIC CIRCUITS. THUS, THIS THESIS DEMONSTRATES THAT VDW ENGINEERING AND DIMENSIONALITY CONTROL PROVIDE A VERSATILE FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATING LOGIC, MEMORY, AND NEUROMORPHIC COMPUTING INTO SIMPLIFIED, HIGH-PERFORMANCE, AND MULTI-MODAL ELECTRONIC PLATFORMS.