The ballistic performance of electron transport in nanowire transistors is examined using a 10 orbital sp3d5s* atomistic tight-binding model for the description of the electronic structure, and the top-of-the-barrier semiclassical ballistic model for calculation of the transport properties of the transistors. The dispersion is self consistently computed with a 2D Poisson solution for the electrostatic potential in the cross section of the wire. The effective mass of the nanowire changes significantly from the bulk value under strong quantization, and effects such as valley splitting strongly lift the degeneracies of the valleys. These effects are pronounced even further under filling of the lattice with charge. The effective mass approximation is in good agreement with the tight binding model in terms of current-voltage characteristics only in certain cases. In general, for small diameter wires, the effective mass approximation fails.
We have developed an efficient scalable kernel method for thermal transport in open systems, with which we have computed the thermal conductance of a junction between bulk silicon and silicon nanowires with diameter up to 10 nm. We have devised scaling laws for transmission and reflection spectra, which allow us to predict the thermal resistance of bulk-nanowire interfaces with larger cross sections than those achievable with atomistic simulations. Our results indicate the characteristic size beyond which atomistic systems can be treated accurately by mesoscopic theories.
By using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrated that thermal conductivity of Germanium nanowires can be reduced more than 25% at room temperature by atomistic coating. There is a critical coating thickness beyond which thermal conductivity of the coated nanowire is larger than that of the host nanowire. The diameter dependent critical coating thickness and minimum thermal conductivity are explored. Moreover, we found that interface roughness can induce further reduction of thermal conductivity in coated nanowires. From the vibrational eigen-mode analysis, it is found t…
Ability to understand and model the performance limits of nanowire transistors is the key to design of next generation devices. Here, we report studies on high-mobility junction-less gate-all-around nanowire field effect transistor with carrier mobility reaching 2000 cm2/V.s at room temperature. Temperature-dependent transport measurements reveal activated transport at low temperatures due to surface donors, while at room temperature the transport shows a diffusive behavior. From the conductivity data, the extracted value of sound velocity in InAs nanowires is found to be an order less than th…
Networks of silicon nanowires possess intriguing electronic properties surpassing the predictions based on quantum confinement of individual nanowires. Employing large-scale atomistic pseudopotential computations, as yet unexplored branched nanostructures are investigated in the subsystem level, as well as in full assembly. The end product is a simple but versatile expression for the bandgap and band edge alignments of multiply-crossing Si nanowires for various diameters, number of crossings, and wire orientations. Further progress along this line can potentially topple the bottom-up approach …
Utilizing atomistic lattice dynamics and scattering theory, we study thermal transport in nanodevices made of 10 nm thick silicon nanowires, from 10 to 100 nm long, sandwiched between two bulk reservoirs. We find that thermal transport in devices differs significantly from that of suspended extended nanowires, due to phonon scattering at the contact interfaces. We show that thermal conductance and the phonon transport regime can be tuned from ballistic to diffusive by varying the surface roughness of the nanowires and their length. In devices containing short crystalline wires phonon tunneling…
A simple and highly reproducible single electron transistor (SET) has been fabricated using gated silicon nanowires. The structure is a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor made on silicon-on-insulator thin films. The channel of the transistor is the Coulomb island at low temperature. Two silicon nitride spacers deposited on each side of the gate create a modulation of doping along the nanowire that creates tunnel barriers. Such barriers are fixed and controlled, like in metallic SETs. The period of the Coulomb oscillations is set by the gate capacitance of the transistor and ther…
In the present work, we have investigated the quantum transport in n Si junction less nanowire field effect transistors using 3 D, full band atomistic sp3d5s spin orbital coupled tight binding method. We have investigated the IDS VGS transfer characteristics, IDS VDS output characteristics, ON current, OFF current leakage, subthreshold swing and energy position resolved electron density spectrum Gn x, E in n Si junction less nanowire field effect transistors. We also study IDS VGS transfer characteristics with variation of High K gate materials. Quantum mechanical simulation is performed on th…
Phonon dispersions in <100> silicon nanowires (SiNW) are modeled using a Modified Valence Force Field (MVFF) method based on atomistic force constants. The model replicates the bulk Si phonon dispersion very well. In SiNWs, apart from four acoustic like branches, a lot of flat branches appear indicating strong phonon confinement in these nanowires and strongly affecting their lattice properties. The sound velocity (Vsnd) and the lattice thermal conductance (kl) decrease as the wire cross-section size is reduced whereas the specific heat (Cv) increases due to increased phonon confinement and su…
We report low-temperature electrical transport studies of molecule-scale silicon nanowires. Individual nanowires exhibit well-defined Coulomb blockade oscillations characteristic of charge addition to a single nanostructure with length scales up to at least 400 nm. Further studies demonstrate coherent charge transport through discrete single particle quantum levels extending the whole device, and show that the ground state spin configuration follows the Lieb-Mattis theorem. In addition, depletion of the nanowires suggests that phase coherent single-dot characteristics are accessible in a regim…
We demonstrate the fabrication of high-performance Ge-SixGe1-x core-shell nanowire field-effect transistors with highly doped source and drain, and systematically investigate their scaling properties. Highly doped source and drain regions are realized by low energy boron implantation, which enables efficient carrier injection with a contact resistance much lower than the nanowire resistance. We extract key device parameters, such as intrinsic channel resistance, carrier mobility, effective channel length, and external contact resistance, as well as benchmark the device switching speed and ON/O…
Silicon nanowires (Si NW) are ideal candidates for solution processable field effect transistors (FETs). The interface between the nanowire channel and the gate dielectric plays a crucial role in the FET performance, and it can be responsible for unwanted effects such as hysteresis of the I-V characteristics due to threshold voltage shift when the gate voltage is applied. Using gate-voltage bias stress measurements we show that a large hysteresis of up to 40V in Si NW FETs with SiO2 dielectric is mainly due to the holes traps at the nanowire/SiO2 interface. An approach for reducing this hyster…
Weyl semimetals are characterized by their bulk Weyl points -- conical band touching points that carry a topological monopole charge -- and Fermi arc states that span between the Weyl points on the surface of the material. Recently, significant progress has been made towards understanding and measuring the physical properties of Weyl semimetals. Yet, potential applications remain relatively sparse. Here, we propose Weyl semimetal nanowires as field-effect transistors, dubbed WEYLFETs. Specifically, applying gradient gate voltage along the nanowire, an electrical field is generated that effecti…
In recent years, three-dimensional GaN-based transistors have been intensively studied for their dramatically improved output power, better gate controllability, and shorter channels for speedup and miniaturization. However, thermal analysis of such devices is often oversimplified using the conventional Fourier's law and bulk material properties in thermal simulations. In this aspect, accurate temperature predictions can be achieved by coupled phonon and electron Monte Carlo simulations that track the movement and scattering of individual phonons and electrons. However, the heavy computational…
Using an approximate time-dependent density functional theory method, we calculate the absorption and luminescence spectra for hydrogen passivated silicon nanoscale structures with large aspect ratio. The effect of electron confinement in axial and radial directions is systematically investigated. Excited state relaxation leads to significant Stokes shifts for short nanorods with lengths less than 2 nm, but has little effect on the luminescence intensity. The formation of self-trapped excitons is likewise observed for short nanostructures only; longer wires exhibit fully delocalized excitons w…
Low dimensional materials provide the possibility of improved thermoelectric performance due to the additional length scale degree of freedom for engineering their electronic and thermal properties. As a result of suppressed phonon conduction, large improvements on the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, have been recently reported in nanostructures, compared to the raw materials' ZT values. In addition, low dimensionality can improve a device's power factor, offering an additional enhancement in ZT. In this work the atomistic sp3d5s*-spin-orbit-coupled tight-binding model is used to calculate…
An approach is presented for the atomistic study of phonon transport in real dielectric nanowires via Green functions. The formalism is applied to investigate the phonon flow through nanowires coated by an amorphous material. Examples for a simple model system, and for real Si nanowires coated by silica are given. New physical results emerge for these systems, regarding the character of the transition from ballistic to diffusive transport, the low temperature thermal conductance, and the influence of the wire-coating interface on the thermal transport. An efficient treatment of phonon scatteri…
Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to understand the influence of temperature on the tensile deformation and fracture behavior of $<$111$>$ BCC Fe nanowires. The simulations have been carried out at different temperatures in the range 10-1000 K employing a constant strain rate of $1\times$ $10^8$ $s^{-1}$. The results indicate that at low temperatures (10-375 K), the nanowires yield through the nucleation of a sharp crack and fails in brittle manner. On the other hand, nucleation of multiple 1/2$<$111$>$ dislocations at yielding followed by significant plastic deformation leadi…
In this work we theoretically explore the effect of dimensionality on the thermoelectric power factor of InAs nanowires by coupling atomistic tight-binding calculations to the Linearized Boltzmann transport formalism. We consider nanowires with diameters from 40nm (bulk-like) down to 3nm (1D), which allows for the proper exploration of the power factor within a unified large-scale atomistic description across a large diameter range. We find that as the diameter of the nanowires is reduced below d < 10 nm, the Seebeck coefficient increases substantially, a consequence of strong subband quantiza…
Gate-all-around nanowire transistor, due to its extremely tight electrostatic control and vertical integration capability, is a highly promising candidate for sub-5 nm technology node. In particular, the junctionless nanowire transistors are highly scalable with reduced variability due to avoidance of steep source/drain junction formation by ion implantation. Here we demonstrate a dual-gated junctionless nanowire \emph{p}-type field effect transistor using tellurium nanowire as the channel. The dangling-bond-free surface due to the unique helical crystal structure of the nanowire, coupled with…
We propose the manipulation of Majorana edge states via hybridization and spin currents in a nanowire spin transistor. The spin transistor is based on a heterostructure nanowire comprising of semiconductors with large and small g-factors that form the topological and non-topological regions respectively. The hybridization of bound edge states results in spin currents and $4π$-periodic torques, as a function of the relative magnetic field angle -- an effect which is dual to the fractional Josephson effect. We establish relation between torques and spin-currents in the non-topological region whe…
One of the main limiting factors in the carrier mobility in semiconductor nanowires is the presence of deep trap levels. While deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) has proved to be a powerful tool in analysing traps in bulk semiconductors, this technique is ineffective for the characterisation of nanowires due to their very small capacitance. Here we introduce a new technique for measuring the spectrum of deep traps in nanowires. In current-mode DLTS (I-DLTS) the temperature-dependence of the transient current through a nanowire field-effect transistor in response to an applied gate voltag…
We present a simple model to describe the lowest-subbands surface scattering in locally oxidized silicon nanowires grown in the [110] direction. To this end, we employ an atomistically scaled effective mass model projected from a three-dimensional effective mass equation and apply a quantum transport formalism to calculate the conductance for typical potential profiles. Comparison of our results with hole-transport calculations using atomistic models in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) points to an intra-subband scattering mechanism from a potential well.
As the conventional silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) approaches its scaling limits; many novel device structures are being extensively explored. Among them, the silicon nanowire transistor (SNWT) has attracted broad attention. To understand device physics in depth and to assess the performance limits of SNWTs, simulation is becoming increasingly important. The objectives of this work are: 1) to theoretically explore the essential physics of SNWTs (e.g., electrostatics, transport and band structure) by performing computer-based simulations, and 2) to assess the…
Core-shell germanium nanowire (GeNW) is formed with a single-crystalline Ge core and concentric shells of nitride and silicon passivation layer by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), an Al2O3 gate dielectric layer by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and an Al metal surround-gate (SG) shell by isotropic magnetron sputter deposition. Surround gate nanowire field effect transistors (FETs) are then constructed using a novel self-aligned fabrication approach. Individual SG GeNW FETs show improved switching over GeNW FETs with planar gate stacks owing to improved electrostatics. FET devices comprised of m…
Starting from a particle system with short-range interactions, we derive a continuum model for the bending, torsion, and brittle fracture of inextensible rods moving in three-dimensional space. As the number of particles tends to infinity, it is assumed that the rod's thickness is of the same order as the interatomic distance. Fracture energy in the $Γ$-limit is expressed by an implicit cell formula, which covers different modes of fracture, including (complete) cracks, folds and torsional cracks. In special cases, the cell formula can be significantly simplified. Our approach applies e.g. to …
In this paper, we have experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, III-V 4D transistors with vertically stacked InGaAs nanowire (NW) channels and gate-all-around (GAA) architecture. Novel process technology enabling the transition from 3D to 4D structure has been developed and summarized. The successful fabrication of InGaAs lateral and vertical NW arrays has led to 4x increase in MOSFET drive current. The top-down technology developed in this paper has opened a viable pathway towards future low-power logic and RF transistors with high-density III-V NWs.
Bimetallic nanoalloys such as nanoparticles and nanowires are attracting significant attention due to their vast potential applications such as in catalysis and nanoelectronics. Notably, Pd-Pt nanoparticles/nanowires are being widely recognized as catalysts and hydrogen sensors. Compared to unary systems, alloys present more structural complexity with various compositional configurations. Therefore, it is important to understand energetically preferred atomic structures of bimetallic nanoalloys. In this study, we performed a series of simulated annealing Monte Carlo simulations to predict the …
Vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) route and its variants are routinely used for scalable synthesis of semiconducting nanowires yet the fundamental growth processes remain unknown. Here, we employ atomic-scale computations based on model potentials to study the stability and growth of gold-catalyzed silicon nanowires (SiNWs). Equilibrium studies uncover segregation at the solid-like surface of the catalyst particle, a liquid AuSi droplet, and a silicon-rich droplet-nanowire interface enveloped by heterogeneous truncating facets. Supersaturation of the droplets leads to rapid 1D growth on the truncating …
A first-principle model is proposed to study the electrostatic properties of a double-gated silicon slab of nano scale in the framework of density functional theory. The applied gate voltage is approximated as a variation of the electrostatic potential on the boundary of the supercell enclosing the system. With the electron density estimated by the real space Green's functions, efficient multigrid and fast Fourier Poisson solvers are employed to calculate the electrostatic potential from the charge density. In the representation of localized SIESTA linear combination of atomic orbitals, the Ko…
Extended Huckel theory (EHT) along with NEGF (Non-equilibrium Green's function formalism) has been used for modeling coherent transport through molecules. Incorporating dephasing has been proposed to theoretically reproduce experimental characteristics for such devices. These elastic and inelastic dephasing effects are expected to be important in quantum devices with the feature size around 10nm, and hence an efficient and versatile solver is needed. This model should have flexibility to be applied to a wide range of nano-scale devices, along with 3D electrostatics, for arbitrary shaped contac…
Effective electron mobilities are obtained by transport measurements on InAs nanowire field-effect transistors at temperatures ranging from 10-200 K. The mobility increases with temperature below ~ 30 - 50 K, and then decreases with temperature above 50 K, consistent with other reports. The magnitude and temperature dependence of the observed mobility can be explained by Coulomb scattering from ionized surface states at typical densities. The behaviour above 50 K is ascribed to the thermally activated increase in the number of scatterers, although nanoscale confinement also plays a role as hig…
Capacitance-voltage characteristics of individual germanium nanowire field effect transistors were directly measured and used to assess carrier mobility in nanowires for the first time; thereby removing uncertainties in calculated mobility due to device geometries, surface and interface states and gate dielectric constants and thicknesses. Direct experimental evidence showed that surround-gated nanowire transistors exhibit higher capacitance and better electrostatic gate control than top-gated devices, and are the most promising structure for future high performance nanoelectronics.
Fabrication techniques such as laser patterning offer excellent potential for low cost and large area device fabrication. Conductive polymers can be used to replace expensive metallic inks such as silver and gold nanoparticles for printing technology. Electrical conductivity of the polymers can be improved by blending with carbon nanotubes. In this work, formulations of acid functionalised multiwall carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNT) and poly (ethylenedioxythiophene) [PEDOT]: polystyrene sulphonate [PSS] were processed, and thin films were prepared on plastic substrates. Conductivity of PEDOT: PSS inc…
This paper presents a self-consistent numerical model for calculating the charge profile and gate capacitance and therefore obtaining C-V characterization for a gate-all-around graded nanowire MOSFET with a high mobility axially graded In0.75Ga0.25As + In0.53Ga0.47As channel incorporating strain and atomic layer deposited Al2O3/20nm Ti gate. C-V characteristics with introduction and variation of In-composition grading and also grading in doping concentration are explored.Finite element method has been used to solve Poisson's equation and Schrödinger's equation self-consistently considering wav…
The influence of pre-strain and temperature on the superior properties exhibited by an Nb nanowire embedded in a NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) are investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. To this end, a new Nb-Ni-Ti ternary interatomic potential based on the second nearest-neighbor modified embedded-atom method (2NN MEAM) is developed and employed. The origin of the unique phenomena of quasi-linear elasticity, slim hysteresis, and reduction in Young's modulus observed for pre-strained nanowire-SMA composites is uncovered. The results demonstrate the importance of plastic deformation in…
A simulation framework that couples atomistic electronic structures to Boltzmann transport formalism is developed and applied to calculate the transport characteristics of thin silicon nanowires (NWs) up to 12nm in diameter. The sp3d5s*-spin-orbit-coupled atomistic tight-binding (TB) model is used for the electronic structure calculation. Linearized Boltzmann transport theory is applied, including carrier scattering by phonons, surface roughness (SRS), and impurities. We present a comprehensive investigation of the low-field mobility in silicon NWs considering: i) n- and p-type NWs, ii) [100],…
The mechanical properties of Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) nanowire is an emerging issue due to its application in semiconductor and optoelectronics industries. In this paper, we conducted molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the temperature-dependent mechanical properties and failure behavior of Zinc-Blende (ZB) CdSe nanowire under uniaxial tensile deformation. We employed Stillinger-Weber (SW) potential to describe the inter-atomic interactions. The effect of variation of temperatures (100 K-600 K), sizes, and crystal orientation on the tensile response of the CdSe nanowires is inves…
A 20 band sp3d5s* spin-orbit-coupled, semi-empirical, atomistic tight-binding (TB) model is used with a semi-classical, ballistic, field-effect-transistor (FET) model, to theoretically examine the bandstructure carrier velocity and ballistic current in silicon nanowire (NW) transistors. Infinitely long, uniform, cylindrical and rectangular NWs, of cross sectional diameters/sides ranging from 3nm to 12nm are considered. For a comprehensive analysis, n-type and p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS and PMOS) NWs in [100], [110] and [111] transport orientations are examined. In general, physical…
In this paper, we demonstrate by simulation the feasibility of electrostatically doped and therefore reconfigurable planar field-effect-transistor (FET) structure which is based on our already fabricated and published Si-nanowire (SiNW) devices. The technological cornerstones for this dual-gated general purpose FET contain Schottky S/D junctions on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The transistor type, i.e. n-type or p-type FET, is electrically selectable on the fly by applying an appropriate control-gate voltage which significantly increases the versatility and flexibility in the design…
Three terminal single-electron transistor devices utilizing Al/Al2O3 gate electrodes were developed for the study of electron transport through individual single-molecule magnets. The devices were patterned via multiple layers of optical and electron beam lithography. Electromigration induced breaking of the nanowires reliably produces 1-3 nm gaps between which the SMM can be situated. Conductance through a single Mn12(3-thiophenecarboxylate) displays the coulomb blockade effect with several excitations within +/- 40 meV.
InAs nanowires have been actively explored as the channel material for high performance transistors owing to their high electron mobility and ease of ohmic metal contact formation. The catalytic growth of non-epitaxial InAs nanowires, however, has often relied on the use of Au colloids which is non-CMOS compatible. Here, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of high yield of crystalline InAs nanowires with high yield and tunable diameters by using Ni nanoparticles as the catalyst material on amorphous SiO2 substrates. The nanowires show superb electrical properties with field-effect electron…
We develop an InAs nanowire gate-all-around field-effect transistor using a transparent conductive zinc oxide (ZnO) gate electrode, which is in-situ atomic layer deposited after growth of gate insulator of Al2O3. We perform magneto-transport measurements and find a crossover from weak localization to weak antilocalization effect with increasing gate voltage, which demonstrates that the Rashba spin-orbit coupling is tuned by the gate electrode. The efficiency of the gate tuning of the spin-orbit interaction is higher than those obtained for two-dimensional electron gas, and as high as that for …
In this paper, we demonstrate by simulation the general usability of an electrostatically doped and electrically reconfigurable planar field-effect transistor (FET) structure. The device concept is partly based on our already published and fabricated silicon nanowire 3D-FET technology. The technological key features of this general purpose FET contain Schottky S/D junctions on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate additionally enabling high-temperature operation of the proposed device. The transistors charge carrier type, i.e. n- or ptype FET, is electrically switchable on the fly by applying…
The influence of local oxidation in silicon nanowires on hole transport, and hence the effect of varying the oxidation state of silicon atoms at the wire surface, is studied using density functional theory in conjunction with a Green's function scattering method. For silicon nanowires with growth direction along [110] and diameters of a few nanometers, it is found that the introduction of oxygen bridging and back bonds does not significantly degrade hole transport for voltages up to several hundred millivolts relative to the valence band edge. As a result, the mean free paths are comparable to…
A computationally efficient mode space simulation method for atomistic simulation of a graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistor in the ballistic limits is developed. The proposed simulation scheme, which solves the nonequilibrium Green's function coupled with a three dimensional Poisson equation, is based on the atomistic Hamiltonian in a decoupled mode space. The mode space approach, which only treats a few modes (subbands), significantly reduces the simulation time. Additionally, the edge bond relaxation and the third nearest neighbor effects are also included in the quantum transport sol…
In this paper, we study the morphologic interaction between graphene and Si nanowires on a SiO2 substrate, using molecular mechanics simulations. Two cases are considered: 1) a graphene nanoribbon intercalated by a single Si nanowire on a SiO2 substrate and 2) a blanket graphene flake intercalated by an array of Si nanowires evenly patterned in parallel on a SiO2 substrate. Various graphene morphologies emerge from the simulation results of these two cases, which are shown to depend on both geometric parameters (e.g., graphene nanoribbon width, nanowire diameter, and nanowire spacing) and mate…
Functionally graded materials (FGM) eliminate the stress singularity in the interface between two different materials and therefore have a wide range of applications in high temperature environments such as engines, nuclear reactors, spacecrafts etc. Therefore, it is essential to study the mechanical properties of different FGM materials. This paper aims at establishing a method for modelling FGMs in molecular dynamics (MD) to get a better insight of their mechanical properties. In this study, the mechanical characteristics of Cu-Ni FGM nanowires (NW) under uniaxial loading have been investiga…
The electronic properties and nanostructure of InAs nanowires are correlated by creating multiple field effect transistors (FETs) on nanowires grown to have low and high defect density segments. 4.2 K carrier mobilities are ~4X larger in the nominally defect-free segments of the wire. We also find that dark field optical intensity is correlated with the mobility, suggesting a simple route for selecting wires with a low defect density. At low temperatures, FETs fabricated on high defect density segments of InAs nanowires showed transport properties consistent with single electron charging, even…
Atomistic density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the capacitance between a metallic cylindric gate and a carbon nanotube (CNT) are reported. Results stressing the predominant effect of quantum capacitance in limiting or even enhancing screening properties of the CNT are shown. Other contributions to the quantum capacitance beyond the electronic density of state (DOS) are pointed out. Negative values of the quantum capacitance are obtained for low-density systems, which correspondingly over-screen the gate field. This unconventional behavior of the quantum capacitance is related to the…
We have analyzed the atomic arrangements and quantum conductance of silver nanowires generated by mechanical elongation. The surface properties of Ag induce unexpected structural properties, as for example, predominance of high aspect ratio rod-like wires. The structural behavior was used to understand the Ag quantum conductance data and the proposed correlation was confirmed by means of theoretical calculations. These results emphasize that the conductance of metal point contacts is determined by the preferred atomic structures and, that atomistic descriptions are essential to interpret the q…
The bandstructures of [110] and [001] Bi2Te3 nanowires are solved with the atomistic 20 band tight binding functionality of NEMO5. The theoretical results reveal: The popular assumption that all topological insulator wire surfaces are equivalent is inappropriate. The Fermi velocity of chemically distinct wire surfaces differs significantly which creates an effective in-surface confinement potential. As a result, topological insulator surface states prefer specific surfaces. Therefore, experiments have to be designed carefully not to probe surfaces unfavorable to the surface states (low density…
We compute atomistically the heat conductance for ultra-thin pristine silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with diameters ranging from 1 to 5 nm. The room temperature thermal conductance is found to be highly anisotropic: wires oriented along the <110> direction have 50-75% larger conductance than wires oriented along the <100> and <111> directions. We show that the anisotropies can be qualitatively understood and reproduced from the bulk phonon band structure. Ab initio density functional theory (DFT) is used to study the thinnest wires, but becomes computationally prohibitive for larger diameters, wher…
Temperature-dependent I-V and C-V spectroscopy of single InAs nanowire field-effect transistors were utilized to directly shed light on the intrinsic electron transport properties as a function of nanowire radius. From C-V characterizations, the densities of thermally-activated fixed charges and trap states on the surface of untreated (i.e., without any surface functionalization) nanowires are investigated while enabling the accurate measurement of the gate oxide capacitance; therefore, leading to the direct assessment of the field-effect mobility for electrons. The field-effect mobility is fo…
We report amplification of biomolecular recognition signal in lithographically defined silicon nanochannel devices. The devices are configured as field effect transistors (FET) in the reversed source-drain bias region. The measurement of the differential conductance of the nanowire channels in the FET allows sensitive detection of changes in the surface potential due to biomolecular binding. Narrower silicon channels demonstrate higher sensitivity to binding due to increased surface-to-volume ratio. The operation of the device in the negative source-drain region demonstrates signal amplificati…
