@article{Luo2026, 
author = {Ting Luo and Shaokai Wei and Zilun Yin and Zhilan Li and Changchang Zhang and Kunlong Chang and Lu Gan and Chao Wu and Yinghua He and Bingyu He and Lian-Mao Peng and Ying Wang and Jiahao Kang and Xuelei Liang and Lan Bai and Yu Cao},
title = {High-performance carbon nanotube thin-film transistors via atomic layer etching-assisted, resist-contamination-free fabrication},
year = {2026},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {19},
number = {3},
pages = {94908425},
keywords = {carbon nanotubes, thin-film transistors, atomic layer etching, sacrificial layer, resist-contamination-free},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2026.94908425},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2026.94908425},
abstract = {Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer exceptional electronic properties, making them promising candidates for high-performance thin-film transistor (TFT) applications. However, conventional fabrication exposes CNT surfaces to resists, leaving persistent residues that degrade dielectric and contact interfaces, resulting in reduced on-state current, lower mobility, poor subthreshold swing, and device nonuniformity. Existing approaches, including ultraviolet-ozone treatment, wet etching, or sacrificial layers, partially mitigate contamination but cannot fully eliminate residues and often limit device scaling. Here, we introduce a fabrication process for top-gate CNT TFTs that achieves resist-contamination-free interfaces using atomic layer etching (ALE) technology. A Y2O3 sacrificial layer defines the active region, enabling high-quality atomic layer deposition of the gate dielectric. Selective ALE precisely etches the dielectric above source/drain regions, with Ar plasma power tuned to minimize damage to underlying CNTs, yielding excellent metal contacts. CNT TFTs fabricated with this approach demonstrate a maximum on-state current of 27.1 μA/μm and peak mobility of 141 cm2/(V·s) at a channel length of 2 μm, and also exhibit excellent performance uniformity, low contact resistance, and low interface trap density. These devices surpass other CNT, low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS), indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO), and transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) TFTs in performance, scalability, and process simplicity. This work provides a scalable pathway towards high-performance CNT TFTs and also suggests potential for miniaturized transistors, as ALE’s vertical, highly directional etch preserves lateral dimensions.}
}