Persistent polarization effects and memory properties in ionic-liquid gated InAs nanowire transistors

Iontronics exploits mobile ions within electrolytes to control the electronic properties of materials and devices' electrical and optical response. In this frame, ionic liquids are widely exploited for the gating of semiconducting nanostructure devices, offering superior performance compared to conventional dielectric gating. In this work, we engineer ionic liquid gated InAs nanowire-based field effect transistors and adopt the set-and-freeze dual gate device operation to probe the nanowires in several ionic gate regimes. We exploit standard back-gating at 150 K, when the ionic liquid is frozen and any crosstalk between the ionic gate and the back gate is ruled out. We demonstrate that the liquid gate polarization has a persistent effect on the nanowire properties. This effect can be conveniently exploited to fine-tune the properties of the nanowires and enable new device functionalities. Specifically, we correlate the modification of the ionic environment around the nanowire to the transistor threshold voltage and hysteresis, on/off ratio and current level retention times. Based on this, we demonstrate memory operations of the nanowire field effect transistors. Our work shines a new light on the interaction between electrolytes and semiconducting nanostructures, providing useful insights for future applications of nanodevice iontronics.