Metal to insulator quantum-phase transition in few-layered ReS${}_2$

Abstract

In ReS${}_2$ a layer-independent direct band-gap of 1.5 eV implies a potential for its use in optoelectronic applications. ReS${}_2$ crystallizes in the 1T${}^{\prime }$-structure which leads to anisotropic physical properties and whose concomitant electronic structure might host a non-trivial topology. Here, we report an overall evaluation of the anisotropic Raman response and the transport properties of few-layered ReS${}_2$ field-effect transistors. We find that ReS${}_2$ exfoliated on SiO${}_2$ behaves as an $n$-type semiconductor with an intrinsic carrier mobility surpassing ${\mu }_i$ ~30 cm${}^2$/Vs at $T=300$ K which increases up to ~350 cm${}^2$/Vs at 2 K. Semiconducting behavior is observed at low electron densities $n$, but at high values of n the resistivity decreases by a factor > 7 upon cooling to 2 K and displays a metallic $T^2$-dependence. This indicates that the band structure of 1T${}^{\prime }$-ReS${}_2$ is quite susceptible to an electric field applied perpendicularly to the layers. The electric-field induced metallic state observed in transition metal dichalcogenides was recently claimed to result from a percolation type of transition. Instead, through a scaling analysis of the conductivity as a function of $T$ and $n$, we find that the metallic state of ReS${}_2$ results from a second-order metal to insulator transition driven by electronic correlations. This gate-induced metallic state offers an alternative to phase engineering for producing ohmic contacts and metallic interconnects in devices based on transition metal dichalcogenides.

25 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Field Effect Transistor in Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
• Integrated Digital Inverters Based on Two-dimensional Anisotropic ReS2 Field-effect Transistors
• Quantitative Determination of the Band-Gap of WS2 with Ambipolar Ionic Liquid-Gated Transistors
• Mono- and Bilayer WS2 Light-Emitting Transistors
• Field-Effect Transistors Based on Few-Layered alpha-MoTe_2
• Probing the Electron States and Metal-Insulator Transition Mechanisms in Atomically Thin MoS2 Based on Vertical Heterostructures
• Hall and field-effect mobilities in few layered $p$-WSe${}_2$ field-effect transistors
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• Critical Behavior of a Strongly Disordered 2D Electron System: The Cases of Long-Range and Screened Coulomb Interactions

Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Extending the colloidal transition metal dichalcogenide library to ReS2 nanosheets for application in gas sensing and electrocatalysis
• Critical Behavior in Doping-Driven Metal$-$Insulator Transition on Single-Crystalline Organic Mott-FET
• Phase Modulators Based on High Mobility Ambipolar ReSe2 Field-Effect Transistors
• Low-Temperature 2D/2D Ohmic Contacts in WSe${}_2$ Field-Effect Transistors as a Platform for the 2D Metal-Insulator Transition
• Quantum ferromagnet in the proximity of the tricritical point
• Light-Assisted and Gate-Tunable Oxygen Gas Sensor based on Rhenium Disulfide (ReS2) Field-Effect Transistors
• Doping controlled Fano resonance in bilayer 1T${}^{\prime }$-ReS${}_2$: Raman experiments and first-principles theoretical analysis
• Zero-Threshold PT-Symmetric Polariton-Raman Laser