We experimentally demonstrate a field-effect transistor with a single front gate built on fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator substrate that possesses extremely steep switching slope (<<1 mV/decade) and gate-controllable hysteresis. The mechanism for the sharp switching, confirmed by simulations, involves the positive feedback between the gate-modulated charge injection barriers and the electron and hole components of the source-drain current. The transistor is named Z(2)-FET as it features zero impact ionization (unlike thyristors) and zero subthreshold swing. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.