MoS₂/Rubrene van der Waals Heterostructure: Toward Ambipolar Field-Effect Transistors and Inverter Circuits

2D transition metal dichalcogenides are promising channel materials for the next-generation electronic device. Here, vertically 2D heterostructures, so called van der Waals solids, are constructed using inorganic molybdenum sulfide (MoS₂) few layers and organic crystal – 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (rubrene). In this work, ambipolar field-effect transistors are successfully achieved based on MoS₂ and rubrene crystals with the well balanced electron and hole mobilities of 1.27 and 0.36 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. The ambipolar behavior is explained based on the band alignment of MoS₂ and rubrene. Furthermore, being a building block, the MoS₂/rubrene ambipolar transistors are used to fabricate CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) inverters that show good performance with a gain of 2.3 at a switching threshold voltage of −26 V. This work paves a way to the novel organic/inorganic ultrathin heterostructure based flexible electronics and optoelectronic devices.