Using first-principles calculations, we investigate six transition-metal nitride halides (TMNHs): HfNBr, HfNCl, TiNBr, TiNCl, ZrNBr, and ZrNCl as potential van der Waals (vdW) dielectrics for transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) channel transistors. We calculate the exfoliation energies and bulk phonon energies and find that the six TMNHs are exfoliable and thermodynamically stable. We calculate both the optical and static dielectric constants in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions for both monolayer and bulk TMNHs. In monolayers, the out-of-plane static dielectric constant ranges from 5.04 (ZrNCl) to 6.03 (ZrNBr) whereas in-plane dielectric constants range from 13.18 (HfNBr) to 74.52 (TiNCl). We show that the bandgap of TMNHs ranges from 1.53 eV (TiNBr) to 3.36 eV (HfNCl) whereas the affinity ranges from 4.01 eV (HfNBr) to 5.60 eV (TiNCl). Finally, we estimate the dielectric leakage current density of transistors with six TMNH monolayer dielectrics with five monolayer channel TMDs (MoS2, MoSe2, MoTe2, WS2, and WSe2). For p-MOS TMD channel transistors, 19 out of 30 combinations have a smaller leakage current compared to monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a well-known vdW dielectric. The smallest monolayer leakage current of 2.14*10-9 A/cm2 is predicted for a p-MOS WS2 transistor with HfNCl as a gate dielectric. HfNBr, HfNCl, ZrNBr, and ZrNCl are also predicted to yield small leakage currents in certain p-MOS TMD transistors.
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