High sensitive gas sensor based on vertical graphene field effect transistor

A gas sensor made from graphene vertical field effect transistor (VGr-FET) has been fabricated using graphene as the source electrode, C₆₀ thin film as the semiconductor layer and aluminum thin film as the drain electrode. The on/off ratio of transistor gated by bottom electrode with ionic liquid gel as dielectric layer is derived to be 10³ from measured source–drain current I _ds. The apparent energy barrier height between the graphene and polycrystalline fullerene was calculated from the model of heterojunction diode I–V response curves. The barrier height φ _BH was altered by the gating potential vertically applied on graphene sheet, resulting the large on/off ratio of the transistor. The effect of surface adsorption of water vapor, oxygen, ammonia and isoprene gas phase molecules on the I _ds was measured. The lower limit of detection (LOD) for ammonia (86 ppb) than that of isoprene (420 ppb) is attributed to the donor nature of ammonia contact with p-type graphene, and the adsorbed donor leads to a corresponding positive gating effect to the VGr-FET. This facile, low cost and quick responsive device shows promise for early diagnose of severe human respiratory diseases. (paper)