Due to the unique outermost orbitals of Sn, hole carriers in tin monoxide (SnO) possess small effective mass and high mobility among oxide semiconductors, making it a promising p-channel material for thin film field-effect transistors (TFTs). However, the Sn vacancy induced field-effect mobility deterioration and threshold voltage (V _th) shift in experiments greatly limit its application in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors. In this study, the internal mechanism of vacancy defect compensation by aluminum (Al) doping in SnO _x film is studied combining experiments with the density functional theory (DFT). The doping is achieved by an argon (Ar) plasma treatment of Al₂O₃ deposited onto the SnO _x film, in which the Al₂O₃ provides both the surface passivation and Al doping source. Experimental results show a wide V _th modulation range (6.08 to −19.77 V) and notable mobility enhancement (11.56 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹) in the SnO _x TFTs after the Al doping by Ar plasma. DFT results reveal that the most possible positions of Al in SnO and SnO₂ segments are the compensation to Sn vacancy and interstitial. The compensation will create an n-type doping effect and improve the hole carrier transport by reducing the hole effective mass (m _h*), which is responsible for the device performance variation, while the interstitial in the SnO₂ segment can hardly affect the valence transport of the film. The defect compensation is suitable for the electronic property modulation of SnO towards the high-performance CMOS application.

中文翻译：

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通过缺陷补偿提高 p 型 SnO x 薄膜晶体管的性能

由于 Sn 独特的最外层轨道，一氧化锡 (SnO) 中的空穴载流子在氧化物半导体中具有小的有效质量和高迁移率，使其成为薄膜场效应晶体管 (TFT) 的有前途的 p 沟道材料。然而，Sn空位引起的场效应迁移率恶化和阈值电压（V _th ) 实验中的转变极大地限制了其在互补金属氧化物半导体 (CMOS) 晶体管中的应用。在这项研究中，铝 (Al) 掺杂在 SnO 中补偿空位缺陷的内部机制 _X 结合实验和密度泛函理论（DFT）对薄膜进行了研究。掺杂是通过对沉积在 SnO 上的Al ₂ O _{3进行氩 (Ar) 等离子体处理来实现的 X} 薄膜，其中Al ₂ O ₃提供表面钝化和Al掺杂源。实验结果表明广泛V SnO 的_{第 th}调制范围（6.08 至 -19.77 V）和显着的迁移率增强（11.56 cm ² V ^-1 s ^{-1 ）} _X 通过 Ar 等离子体掺杂 Al 后的 TFT。_{DFT 结果表明，Al 在SnO 和SnO 2}链段中最可能的位置是对Sn 空位和间隙的补偿。补偿将产生 n 型掺杂效应并通过减少空穴有效质量来改善空穴载流子传输（米 _{h *)，这是造成器件性能变化的原因，而SnO 2}段的间隙几乎不会影响薄膜的价态传输。缺陷补偿适用于对高性能 CMOS 应用的 SnO 的电子特性调制。