A framework for generation and recombination in tunneling field-effect transistors

Despite nearly a decade of active research on tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs), few experimental results have shown a subthreshold swing (SS) less than the 60-mV/decade room-temperature limit. For those devices beating the thermal limit, steep SS has only been observed at current densities less than 10 nA/μm [1]-[5]. Many experimental results are in sharp contrast to idealized simulations that show steep SS, low off-current, and high on-current for devices made from a variety of material systems and geometries (see, e.g., the plots of experimental and simulated TFET transfer characteristics shown in [6]). This suggests that TFET simulations are inadequately modeling non-ideal effects present in experimental devices that degrade the measured electrical characteristics.