Proton-Irradiation-Immune Electronics Implemented with Two-Dimensional Charge-Density-Wave Devices

Abstract

Proton radiation damage is an important failure mechanism for electronic devices in near-Earth orbits, deep space and high energy physics facilities. Protons can cause ionizing damage and atomic displacements, resulting in device degradation and malfunction. Shielding of electronics increases the weight and cost of the systems but does not eliminate destructive single events produced by energetic protons. Modern electronics based on semiconductors - even those specially designed for radiation hardness - remain highly susceptible to proton damage. Here we demonstrate that room temperature (RT) charge-density-wave (CDW) devices with quasi-two-dimensional (2D) 1T-TaS2 channels show remarkable immunity to bombardment with 1.8 MeV protons to a fluence of at least 10^14 H+cm^2. Current-voltage I-V characteristics of these 2D CDW devices do not change as a result of proton irradiation, in striking contrast to most conventional semiconductor devices or other 2D devices. Only negligible changes are found in the low-frequency noise spectra. The radiation immunity of these "all-metallic" CDW devices can be attributed to their two-terminal design, quasi-2D nature of the active channel, and high concentration of charge carriers in the utilized CDW phases. Such devices, capable of operating over a wide temperature range, can constitute a crucial segment of future electronics for space, particle accelerator and other radiation environments.

18 pages, 2 display items

References in corpus (6)

• Gate-tunable Phase Transitions in 1T-TaS${}_2$
• A metallic mosaic phase and the origin of Mott insulating state in 1T-TaS2
• Structure and Control of Charge Density Waves in Two-Dimensional 1T-TaS2
• Acceleration of electrons in the plasma wakefield of a proton bunch
• Low-Frequency Noise and Sliding of the Charge Density Waves in Two-Dimensional Materials
• Total Ionizing Dose Effects on Threshold Switching in 1T-Tantalum Disulfide Charge-Density-Wave Devices

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Electric Switching of the Charge-Density-Wave and Normal Metallic Phases in Tantalum Disulfide Thin-Film Devices
• Two Phonon Interactions and Charge Density Wave in Single Crystalline VSe2 Probed by Raman Spectroscopy
• Gate- and Light-Tunable Negative Differential Resistance with High Peak Current Density in 1T-TaS${}_2$/2H-MoS${}_2$ T-Junction
• Thermally-Driven Charge-Density-Wave Transitions in 1T-TaS2 Thin-Film Devices: Prospects for GHz Switching Speed
• Large optical tunability from charge density waves in 1T-TaS${}_2$ under incoherent illumination
• Current Oscillations in Quasi-2D Charge-Density-Wave 1T-TaS2 Devices: Revisiting the "Narrow Band Noise" Concept
• Low-Frequency Electronic Noise in Superlattice and Random-Packed Thin Films of Colloidal Quantum Dots
• Charge-Density-Wave Oscillator Networks for Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems