Stanford University, USA, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Precourt Institute for Energy

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have applications in low-power electronics and energy-conversion systems. These are also rich domains for both fundamental discoveries as well as technological advances. This talk will present recent highlights from our research on graphene, BN, and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). We have studied graphene from basic transport measurements and simulations, to the recent wafer-scale demonstration of analog dot product nanofunctions for neural networks [1]. We are also growing [2] and evaluating the electrical, thermal, and thermoelectric properties of TMDs including MoS2, MoSe2, HfSe2, and WTe2. Recent results include low-resistance contacts, 10-nm scale transistors [3], and high-field transport studies including velocity saturation. We have also examined the anisotropic thermal conductivity of these materials, for unconventional applications to thermal switches and thermal routing. If time permits, I will also discuss nanoscale thermoelectric effects in transistors and phase-change memory (PCM), which could enable energy-efficient operation. Our studies reveal fundamental limits and new applications that could be achieved through the co-design and heterogeneous integration of 2D nanomaterials.

1. N.C. Wang, S.K. Gonugondla, I. Nahlus, N.R. Shanbhag, E. Pop, "GDOT: A Graphene-Based Nanofunction for Dot-Product Computation," IEEE VLSI Tech. Symp., Jun 2016, Honolulu HI

2. K.K.H. Smithe, C.D. English, S.V. Suryavanshi, E. Pop, "Intrinsic Electrical Transport and Performance Projections of Synthetic Monolayer MoS2 Devices," 2D Materials 4, 011009 (2017)

3. C.D. English, K.K.H. Smithe, R.L. Xu, E. Pop, "Approaching Ballistic Transport in Monolayer MoS2 Transistors with Self-Aligned 10 nm Top Gates," IEEE Intl. Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Dec 2016, San Francisco CA

Eric Pop is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering (EE) and Materials Science & Engineering (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2007-13) and also worked at Intel (2005-07). His research interests are at the intersection of nanoelectronics, nanomaterials, and energy. He received his PhD in EE from Stanford (2005) and three degrees from MIT (MEng and BS in EE, BS in Physics). His awards include the 2010 PECASE from the White House, the highest honor given by the US government to early-career scientists and engineers. He is also a recipient of Young Investigator Awards from the ONR, NSF CAREER, AFOSR, DARPA, and of several best paper/poster and teaching/advising awards. He is an IEEE Senior member, he served as the General Chair of the Device Research Conference (DRC), and on program committees of the VLSI, IRPS, MRS, IEDM, and APS conferences. In a past life, he was a DJ at KZSU 90.1 FM from 2001-04. Additional information about the Pop Lab is available online at http://poplab.stanford.edu.