Approaching the quantum limit in two-dimensional semiconductor contacts

The development of next-generation electronics requires scaling of channel material thickness down to the two-dimensional limit while maintaining ultralow contact resistance 1,2 . Transition-metal dichalcogenides can sustain transistor scaling to the end of roadmap, but despite a myriad of efforts, the device performance remains contact-limited 3-12 . In particular, the contact resistance has not surpassed that of covalently bonded metal-semiconductor junctions owing to the intrinsic van der Waals gap, and the best contact technologies are facing stability issues 3,7 . Here we push the electrical contact of monolayer molybdenum disulfide close to the quantum limit by hybridization of energy bands with semi-metallic antimony ([Formula: see text]) through strong van der Waals interactions. The contacts exhibit a low contact resistance of…