The field effect control of nanostructures via all-solid-state gates for advanced nanotechnology applications suffers from the quest for increasingly challenging device architectures, raising scalability issues, and relatively poor modulation of charge density, inhibiting the exploitation of novel quantum phenomena.
To overcome these limitations and explore new device functionalities, a team of researchers from Scuola Normale and Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, coordinated by Francesco Rossella, investigated the operation of InAs nanowire FETs gated by a ionic liquid electrolyte. The liquid gate yields impressive charge modulation, transconductance enhanced by a factor 50 respect to back‐gate operation, and allows tuning the resistance temperature dependence from semiconducting to quasi‐metallic.
The results deserved the front inside cover on Advanced Functional Materials (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201970014) and are fostering pioneering studies ranging from nanoscale thermoelectrics and quantum electronics to nano-transducers for bioelectronics.