  The high field transport characteristics of nanostructured transistors based
on layered materials are not only important from a device physics perspective
but also for possible applications in next generation electronics. With the
growing promise of layered materials as replacements to conventional silicon
technology, we study here the high current density properties of the layered
material titanium trisulfide (TiS3). We observe high breakdown current
densities up to 1.7 10^6 A/cm^2 in TiS3 nanoribbon-based field-effect
transistors which are among the highest found in semiconducting nanomaterials.
Investigating the mechanisms responsible for current breakdown, we perform a
thermogravimetric analysis of bulk TiS3 and compare the results with density
functional theory (DFT) and Kinetic Monte Carlo calculations. We conclude that
oxidation of TiS3 and subsequent desorption of sulfur atoms plays an important
role in the electrical breakdown of the material in ambient conditions. Our
results show that TiS3 is an attractive material for high power applications
and lend insight to the thermal and defect activated mechanisms responsible for
electrical breakdown in nanostructured devices.
