In the post-Moore era, improving energy efficiency is an urgent requirement for microelectronics moving towards the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and 5G. In particular, two-dimensional (2D) materials with natural passivation, gate electrostatics, and high mobility have attracted significant attention for integrated circuits in the race towards next-generation field-effect transistors (FETs). Here, by coupling first-principles and nonequilibrium-Green’s-function approaches, we obtain a physical understanding of the ballistic transport properties of a V-V binary bismuth nitride ($\mathrm{Bi}\mathrm{N}$) material. Promisingly, monolayer $\mathrm{Bi}\mathrm{N}$ has sharp conduction-band and flat valence-band edges, which exhibit disparate effective masses. Simulated sub-10-nm monolayer $\mathrm{Bi}\mathrm{N}$ transistors show potential device performance and fulfill the high-performance and low-power requirements of the goals of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors 2028 with their optimal parameters. Furthermore, by comprehensively analyzing the effective mass, density of states, on-state current, subthreshold swing, etc., we show that materials whose band dispersions have an extreme character have advantages for transistors. Also, benchmarking of the energy-delay product confirms that $\mathrm{Bi}\mathrm{N}$ FETs possess sufficient competitiveness against other 2D FETs. We believe that this could be a guide for designing potential channel materials for next-generation FETs.

• Received 14 November 2019
• Revised 25 February 2020
• Accepted 23 March 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.13.044066