Graphene and topological insulator based transistors: Beyond computing applications

Silicon based field effect transistors (FET) have been the foundation of computing industries for decades. As we approach the end of the Moore's law scaling, there have been increasing interests and efforts to explore transistors based on many “emerging” (non-Si) materials that may replace or supplement Si in future electronics and computing devices. However, Si and Si-MOSFETs remain exceptionally competitive and hard to beat by most “emerging” contenders. On the other hand, many of the non-Si based “emerging transistors” have novel physical properties that may make them highly attractive for various non-computing applications. In this talk, I will discuss transistors based on graphene and topological insulators, two classes of materials that have attracted much recent attention in physics and nanoelectronics communities. While both materials feature many novel electronic properties related to the unique Dirac electronic bandstructure, the lack of band gap brings challenges in applying them as digital electronic switches in conventional computing applications. After a brief review of graphene and TI based transistors and their prospects for digital computing applications, I will focus on two examples of exploiting the unique physical properties of these transistors for non-computing applications, particularly sensing and energy conversion.