Field-Driven Athermal Activation of Amorphous Metal Oxide Semiconductors for Flexible Programmable Logic Circuits and Neuromorphic Electronics

Despite extensive research, large-scale realization of metal-oxide electronics is still impeded by high-temperature fabrication, incompatible with flexible substrates. Ideally, an athermal treatment modifying the electronic structure of amorphous metal oxide semiconductors (AMOS) to generate sufficient carrier concentration would help mitigate such high-temperature requirements, enabling realization of high-performance electronics on flexible substrates. Here, a novel field-driven athermal activation of AMOS channels is demonstrated via an electrolyte-gating approach. Facilitating migration of charged oxygen species across the semiconductor–dielectric interface, this approach modulates the local electronic structure of the channel, generating sufficient carriers for charge transport and activating oxygen-compensated thin films. The thin-film transistors (TFTs) investigated here depict an enhancement of linear mobility from 51 to 105.25 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ (ionic-gated) and from 8.09 to 14.49 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ (back-gated), by creating additional oxygen vacancies. The accompanying stochiometric transformations, monitored via spectroscopic measurements (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) corroborate the detailed electrical (TFT, current evolution) parameter analyses, providing critical insights into the underlying oxygen-vacancy generation mechanism and clearly demonstrating field-induced activation as a promising alternative to conventional high-temperature annealing strategies. Facilitating on-demand active programing of the operation modes of transistors (enhancement vs depletion), this technique paves way for facile fabrication of logic circuits and neuromorphic transistors for bioinspired computing.