The concept of electrostatic doping and related devices

Abstract Electrostatic doping aims at replacing donor/acceptor dopant species with free electron/hole charges induced by the gates in ultrathin MOS structures. Highly doped N + /P + terminals and virtual P-N junctions can be emulated in undoped layers prompting innovative reconfigurable devices with enriched functionality. The distinct merit is that the carrier concentration and polarity ( i.e. , electrostatic doping) are tunable via the gate bias. After presenting the fundamentals, we review the family of electrostatically-doped devices fabricated with emerging or mature technologies (nanowires, nanotubes, 2D materials, FD-SOI). The multiple facets of the Hocus Pocus diode are discussed by underlining the difference with classical physical diodes. Electrostatic doping gave rise to a number of band-modulation devices with outstanding memory and sharp-switching capability. The concept, intrinsic mechanisms and typical applications are described in detail.