Atomically Thin Amorphous Carbon with an Ultralow Dielectric Constant
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit excellent properties at monolayer thickness and are viable replacements for various microelectronic components as scaling gradually approaches the atomic limit. Despite significant advancements in the ongoing 2D revolution of integrated circuits, one crucial building block, namely a 2D ultralow-k (ULK) dielectric, remains unreported. The challenge lies in achieving a dielectric constant less than 3, as traditional low-k dielectrics are inherently unstable at the 2D limit due to their amorphous or porous nature. The realisation of ultrathin dielectrics with low-k is also needed to address current bottlenecks in integrated circuits scaling. Specifically, low-k materials are necessary to minimise parasitic capacitances as the distance between conductive elements shrinks below 10 nm. Moreover, advanced architectures like gate-all-around field effect transistors (GAA FET) require even lower dielectric constants (k<2) at sub-3nm thickness. Here, we show that layer-by-layer grown multilayer amorphous carbon (ML-AC), as thin as 0.8 nm, is a mechanically robust 2D ULK dielectric with k of 1.35 and dielectric strength of 28-31 MV cm-1. The lack of any long-range order, its intrinsic 2D nature, sp2 carbon character and low density are all essential for minimising dielectric permittivity. Moreover, ML-AC overcomes the vulnerability of existing dielectrics to ion diffusion degradation with a record metal ion diffusion time to failure (TTF) of 10^10 s for even a single layer. Therefore, otherwise necessary additional layers occupying up to 3 nm can be eliminated, which is especially significant as metal line widths approach 10 nm. Combined with its low-temperature, direct and conformal growth even on a dielectric, these critical features enable substantial improvements in silicon-based semiconductor electronics and ensure compatibility with future 2D electronics.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{toh2026atomically,
title = {{Atomically Thin Amorphous Carbon with an Ultralow Dielectric Constant}},
author = {Chee-Tat Toh and Artem K. Grebenko and Ugur Karadeniz and Usha Bhat and Ya He and Hongji Zhang and Denis V. Vyalikh and Anna Makarova and Alexander Fedorov and Alena A. Alekseeva and Kostya Iakoubovskii and Lu Shi and Andrei Starkov and Chuan Chu Tee and Lucas M. Sassi and Michel Bosman and Naoto Kamiuchi and Yuta Sato and Kazutomo Suenaga and Barbaros Oezyilmaz},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.29729},
eprint = {2606.29729},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.29729},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Atomically Thin Amorphous Carbon with an Ultralow Dielectric Constant
AU - Chee-Tat Toh
AU - Artem K. Grebenko
AU - Ugur Karadeniz
AU - Usha Bhat
AU - Ya He
AU - Hongji Zhang
AU - Denis V. Vyalikh
AU - Anna Makarova
AU - Alexander Fedorov
AU - Alena A. Alekseeva
AU - Kostya Iakoubovskii
AU - Lu Shi
AU - Andrei Starkov
AU - Chuan Chu Tee
AU - Lucas M. Sassi
AU - Michel Bosman
AU - Naoto Kamiuchi
AU - Yuta Sato
AU - Kazutomo Suenaga
AU - Barbaros Oezyilmaz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.29729
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.29729
AB - Two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit excellent properties at monolayer thickness and are viable replacements for various microelectronic components as scaling gradually approaches the atomic limit. Despite significant advancements in the ongoing 2D revolution of integrated circuits, one crucial building block, namely a 2D ultralow-k (ULK) dielectric, remains unreported. The challenge lies in achieving a dielectric constant less than 3, as traditional low-k dielectrics are inherently unstable at the 2D limit due to their amorphous or porous nature. The realisation of ultrathin dielectrics with low-k is also needed to address current bottlenecks in integrated circuits scaling. Specifically, low-k materials are necessary to minimise parasitic capacitances as the distance between conductive elements shrinks below 10 nm. Moreover, advanced architectures like gate-all-around field effect transistors (GAA FET) require even lower dielectric constants (k<2) at sub-3nm thickness. Here, we show that layer-by-layer grown multilayer amorphous carbon (ML-AC), as thin as 0.8 nm, is a mechanically robust 2D ULK dielectric with k of 1.35 and dielectric strength of 28-31 MV cm-1. The lack of any long-range order, its intrinsic 2D nature, sp2 carbon character and low density are all essential for minimising dielectric permittivity. Moreover, ML-AC overcomes the vulnerability of existing dielectrics to ion diffusion degradation with a record metal ion diffusion time to failure (TTF) of 10^10 s for even a single layer. Therefore, otherwise necessary additional layers occupying up to 3 nm can be eliminated, which is especially significant as metal line widths approach 10 nm. Combined with its low-temperature, direct and conformal growth even on a dielectric, these critical features enable substantial improvements in silicon-based semiconductor electronics and ensure compatibility with future 2D electronics.
ER -