Deep Jariwala
Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA E-mail: dmj@seas.upenn.edu Website: jariwala.seas.upenn.edu
Modern computing faces significant challenges in the post-Moore's Law era, particularly as applications shift from arithmetic-centric to data-centric paradigms driven by artificial intelligence and ubiquitous connectivity. Silicon will likely remain dominant for the foreseeable future, but there's a pressing need for innovative materials and device architectures to complement silicon and enable more efficient, powerful, and versatile computing systems for both conventional and extreme environments.
In this talk, I will first discuss our research on two-dimensional (2D) chalcogenide semiconductors for next-generation electronics. These materials exhibit remarkable properties when integrated with silicon to create low-power tunneling field effect transistors, particularly using In-Se based semiconductors. I will highlight our achievements in phase-pure epitaxial thin-film growth at wafer scales, compatible with back-end-of-line processing in silicon fabs.
I will then present our work on integrating 2D materials with emerging ferroelectric nitride materials for advanced memory applications. Specifically, I will focus on how integrating 2D semiconductors with wurtzite structure ferroelectric nitrides, particularly aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN), creates high-performance ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FE-FETs). Our latest results demonstrate scaling of 2D/AlScN FE-FETs to achieve ultra-high carrier and current densities in ferroelectrically gated MoS₂. This section will also cover ferroelectric diode (FeD) memory devices with multi-bit operation and compute-in-memory capabilities. The exceptional temperature stability of AlScN FeDs, with stable operation up to 600°C and data retention up to 1000°C when integrated with SiC, as well as down to -261 °C makes these devices uniquely suited for extreme environment computing applications.
Finally, depending on how much time permits, I will explore how strong light-matter coupling in excitonic 2D semiconductors enables novel photonic devices. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) of molybdenum and tungsten, with their visible spectrum bandgaps and strong excitonic absorption, serve as excellent platforms for investigating strong light-matter interactions and the formation of hybrid states. Our recent work demonstrates how multi-layer TMDCs coupled to reflective substrates achieve remarkable light trapping. I will extend this discussion to superlattices of excitonic chalcogenides, and metal-organic chalcogenolates, which offer unique opportunities to tailor light dispersion in the strong to ultra-strong coupling regime. I will discuss the physics of strong light-matter coupling and its applications in phase modulator devices, photovoltaic devices, and control of light in magnetic semiconductors as well as tuning of quantum emitters.
I will conclude by presenting a vision for how these technologies can converge to create novel information processing and sensing platforms that leverage the best aspects of electronics and photonics, highlighting the vast opportunities for 2D and related materials in the future of semiconductor electronics, photonics, and quantum technologies.
Zoom link: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/93557498607?pwd=eUUzODFBYXV2TWNLTWxMdHFJRWZnQT09