Hydrogen-assisted growth of one-dimensional tellurium nanoribbons with unprecedented high mobility

High-mobility van der Waals ambipolar semiconductors are promising in logic and reconfigurable circuits, integrated optoelectronic circuits, due to the excellent gate-controlled capability and effectively tunability of major charge carriers by electrostatic field. Controllable growth of high-quality ambipolar semiconductors with high mobility and stability is highly glamorous and indispensable for further research. Here, we demonstrate a straightforward space-confined chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to synthesize high-quality quasi-one-dimensional (1D) tellurium (Te) nanoribbons (NRs). By introducing H₂ into the gas flow, endothermic compound H₂Te was generated from the reaction of liquid Te with H₂, and consequently decomposed into elemental Te at low temperature. Further, the Te NRs have been utilized for in-situ fabrication of field-effect transistors (FETs) without transferring process. Ambipolar features are achieved using nickel (Ni) as an ohmic contact. More importantly, the mobilities of the Te NR transistor for hole/electron are as high as 1755/28.6 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ and 4024/278 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ at room temperature and under a temperature below 20 K, respectively. Our findings confirm the novel strategy for synthesizing 1D elemental semiconductors and their applications with ambipolar behaviors.