A numerical simulation of spin-dependent quantum transport for a spin field effect transistor (spinFET) is implemented in a widely used simulator nanoMOS. This method includes the effect of both spin relaxation in the channel and the tunneling barrier between the source/drain and the channel. Account for these factors permits setting more realistic performance limits for the transistor, especially the magnetoresistance, which is found to be lower compared to earlier predictions. The interplay between tunneling and spin relaxation is elucidated by numerical simulation. Insertion of the tunneling barrier leads to an increased magnetoresistance. Numerical simulations are used to explore the tunneling barrier design issues.
Zero-frequency spectral densities of current noise, charge noise, and their cross-correlation are calculated for the SET transistor in the co-tunneling regime. The current noise has a form expected for the uncorrelated co-tunneling events. Charge noise is created by the co-tunneling and also by the second-order transitions in a single junction. Calculated spectral densities determine transistor characteristics as quantum detector.
Using self-consistent quantum transport simulation on realistic devices, we show that InAs band-to-band Tunneling Field Effect Transistors (TFET) with a heavily doped pocket in the gate-source overlap region can offer larger ON current and steeper subthreshold swing as compared to conventional tunneling transistors. This is due to an additional tunneling contribution to current stemming from band overlap along the body thickness. However, a critical thickness is necessary to obtain this advantage derived from 'vertical' tunneling. In addition, in ultra small InAs TFET devices, the subthreshold…
A current due to a tunneling event that involves three times the charge of an electron was observed in the current - voltage characteristics of a superconducting single-electron tunneling transistor. In this tunnel event, a Cooper pair tunnels through one tunnel barrier simultaneously with a quasiparticle that tunnels through a second tunnel barrier which is about 0.5 microns distant from the first tunnel barrier. This current was observed in a bias regime where current flow due to sequential quasiparticle tunneling is forbidden due to the Coulomb blockade.
Josephson oscillations generated by a SQUID were used to measure photon assisted tunneling in a superconducting single electron tunneling (SET) transistor. The SQUID was fabricated only a few microns from the SET transistor. The close proximity of the generator to the SET transistor allowed for a continuous sweep of the excitation frequency from 10 GHz to 190 GHz. The amplitude of the Josephson oscillations were tuned by adjusting the flux through the SQUID loop while the frequency was independently adjusted by controlling the bias voltage across the SQUID. Current peaks which could be attribu…
We predict theoretically and observe in experiment that the differential conductance of a superconducting SET transistor exhibits a peak which is a complete analogue in a macroscopic system of a standard resonant tunneling peak associated with tunneling through a single quantum state. In particular, in a symmetric transistor, the peak height is universal and equal to $e^2/2π\hbar$. Away from the resonance we clearly observe the co-tunneling current which in contrast to the normal-metal transistor varies linearly with the bias voltage.
It is usually assumed that tunneling current is fairly independent of temperature. By performing an atomistic transport simulation, we show, to the contrary, that the subthreshold tunneling current in a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) band-to-band tunneling transistor (TFET) should show significant and non-linear temperature dependence. Furthermore, the nature of this non-linearity changes as a function of source/drain doping and vertical electric field, indicating that such non-linearity, if properly understood, may provide important insights into the tunneling phenomena. Finally, by developing a p…
The transient tunneling current of single electron transistors (SETs) is theoretically investigated. The time-dependent current formula given by Jauho, Wingreen and Meir [Phys. Rev. B 50, 5528 (1994)] is applied to study the temperature effect on the transient current through a single quantum dot embedded into asymmetry barrier. It is found that the tunneling rate ratio significantly influences the feature of transient current. Finally, the oscillation structures on the exponential growth transient current of single hole transistors composed of germanium quantum dots is analyzed.
We study transport through a ferromagnetic single-electron transistor. The resistance is represented as a path integral, so that systems where the tunnel resistances are smaller than the quantum resistance can be investigated. Beyond the low order sequential tunneling and co-tunneling regimes, a large magnetoresistance ratio at sufficiently low temperatures is found. In the opposite limit, when the thermal energy is larger than the charging energy, the magnetoresistance ratio is only slightly enhanced.
Band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) devices have recently gained a lot of interest due to their potential for reducing power dissipation in integrated circuits. We have performed extensive simulations for the BTBT operation of carbon nanotube metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (CNT-MOSFETs) using the non-equilibrium Green's functions formalism for both ballistic and dissipative quantum transport. In comparison with recently reported experimental data (Y. Lu et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., v. 128, p. 3518-3519, 2006), we have obtained strong evidence that BTBT in CNT-MOSFETs is dominated by…
We measure electron tunneling in single-molecule transistors made from C_{140}, a molecule with a mass-spring-mass geometry chosen as a model system to study electron-vibration coupling. We observe vibration-assisted tunneling at an energy corresponding to the stretching mode of C_{140}. Molecular modeling provides explanations for why this mode couples more strongly to electron tunneling than the other internal modes of the molecule. We make comparisons between the observed tunneling rates and those expected from the Franck-Condon model.
We prepare twist-controlled resonant tunneling transistors consisting of monolayer (Gr) and Bernal bilayer (BGr) graphene electrodes separated by a thin layer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). The resonant conditions are achieved by closely aligning the crystallographic orientation of the graphene electrodes, which leads to momentum conservation for tunneling electrons at certain bias voltages. Under such conditions, negative differential conductance (NDC) can be achieved. Application of in-plane magnetic field leads to electrons acquiring additional momentum during the tunneling process, whic…
We describe single electron tunneling through molecular structures under the influence of nano-mechanical excitations. We develop a full quantum mechanical model, which includes charging effects and dissipation, and apply it to the vibrating C$_{60}$ single electron transistor experiment by Park {\em et al.} {[Nature {\bf 407}, 57 (2000)].} We find good agreement and argue vibrations to be essential to molecular electronic systems. We propose a mechanism to realize negative differential conductance using local bosonic excitations.
Today the availability of high mobility graphene up to room temperature makes ballistic transport in nanodevices achievable. In particular, p-n-p transistor in the ballistic regime gives access to the Klein tunneling physics and allows the realization of devices exploiting the optics-like behavior of Dirac Fermions (DF) as in the Vesalego lens or the Fabry Pérot cavity. Here we propose a Klein tunneling transistor based on geometrical optics of DF. We consider the case of a prismatic active region delimited by a triangular gate, where total internal reflection may occur, which leads to the tun…
Vertical tunneling field-effect-transistor (FET) based on graphene heterojunctions with layers of hBN is simulated by self-consistent quantum transport simulations. It is found that the asymmetric p-type and n-type conduction is due to work function deference between the graphene contact and the tunneling channel material. Modulation of the bottom-graphene-contact plays an important role in determining the switching characteristic of the device. Due to the electrostatic short-channel-effects stemming from the vertical-FET structure, the output I-V characteristics do not saturate. The scaling b…
We measure the high-frequency emission of a single Cooper pair transistor(SCPT) in the regime where transport is only due to tunneling of Cooper pairs. This is achieved by coupling on-chip the SCPT to a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction and by measuring the photon assisted tunneling current of quasiparticles across the junction. This technique allows a direct detection of the AC Josephson effect of the SCPT and provides evidence of Landau-Zener transitions for proper gate voltage. The emission in the regime of resonant Cooper pair tunneling is also investigated. It is interprete…
In this paper we have developed a two dimensional (2D) analytical model for surface potential and drain current for a long channel Dual Material Gate (DMG) Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Tunneling Field Effect Transistor (TFET). This model includes the effect of drain voltage, gate metal work function, oxide thickness and silicon film thickness, without assuming a fully depleted channel. The proposed model also includes the effect of charge accumulation at the interface of the two gates and the variation in the tunneling volume with the applied gate voltage. The accuracy of the model is tested usi…
In single-molecule transistors, we observe inelastic cotunneling features that correspond energetically to vibrational excitations of the molecule, as determined by Raman and infrared spectroscopy. This is a form of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy of single molecules, with the transistor geometry allowing in-situ tuning of the electronic states via a gate electrode. The vibrational features shift and change shape as the electronic levels are tuned near resonance, indicating significant modification of the vibrational states. When the molecule contains an unpaired electron, we also ob…
We study the temperature and gate voltage dependence of the conductance of the single electron transistor focusing on highly conducting devices. Electron tunneling is treated nonperturbatively by means of path integral Monte Carlo techniques and the conductance is determined from the Kubo formula. A regularized singular value decomposition scheme is employed to calculate the conductance from imaginary time simulation data. Our findings are shown to bridge between available analytical results in the semiclassical and perturbative limits and are found to explain recent experimental results in a …
We theoretically study the tunnelling current of a single electron transistor (SET) under optical pumping. It found that holes in the quantum dot(QD) created by optical pumping lead to new channels for the electrons tunnelling from emitter to collector. As a consequence, an electron can tunnel through the QD via additional channels, characterized by the exciton, trion and biexciton states. The binding energy of exciton complexes can be determined by the Coulomb oscillatory tunnelling current.
Electronic transport in a carbon nanotube (CNT) metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is simulated using the non-equilibrium Green's functions method with the account of electron-phonon scattering. For MOSFETs, ambipolar conduction is explained via phonon-assisted band-to-band (Landau-Zener) tunneling. In comparison to the ballistic case, we show that the phonon scattering shifts the onset of ambipolar conduction to more positive gate voltage (thereby increasing the off current). It is found that the subthreshold swing in ambipolar conduction can be made as steep as 40mV/d…
We propose a Heterojunction Vertical Tunneling FET and show using self-consistent ballistic quantum transport simulations that it can provide very steep subthreshold swings and high ON current, thereby improving the scalability of Tunnel FETs for high performance. The turn-on in pocket region of the device is dictated by modulation of heterojunction barrier height. The steepness of turn-on is increased because of simultaneous onset of tunneling in the pocket and the region underneath and also due to contribution to current by vertical tunneling in the pocket. These factors can be engineered by…
Recently it has been experimentally shown that a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) can be obtained by unzipping a carbon nanotube (CNT). This makes it possible to fabricate all-carbon heterostructures that have a unique interface between a CNT and a GNR. Here we demonstrate that such a heterojunction may be utilized to obtain a unique transistor operation. By performing a self-consistent non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) based calculation on an atomistically defined structure, we show that such a transistor may reduce energy dissipation below the classical limit while not compromising speed - th…
Power dissipation has become a major obstacle in performance scaling of modern integrated circuits, and has spurred the search for devices operating at lower voltage swing. In this letter, we study p-i-n band-to-band tunneling field effect transistors (TFET) taking semiconducting carbon nanotubes as the channel material. The on-current of these devices is mainly limited by the tunneling barrier properties, and phonon scattering has only a moderate effect. We show, however, that the off-current is limited by phonon absorption assisted tunneling, and thus is strongly temperature-dependent. Subth…
Transport through molecular quantum dots coupled to a single vibration mode is studied in the case with strong coupling to the leads. We use an expansion in the correlation between electrons on the molecule and electrons in the leads and show that the tunneling broadening is strongly suppressed by the combination of the Pauli principle and the quantization of the oscillator. As a consequence the first Frank-Condon step is sharper than the higher order ones, and its width, when compared to the bare tunneling strength, is reduced by the overlap between the groundstates of the displaced and the n…
Recent experiments shown that graphene epitaxially grown on Silicon Carbide (SiC) can exhibit a energy gap of 0.26 eV, making it a promising material for electronics. With an accurate model, we explore the design parameter space for a fully ballistic graphene-on-SiC Tunnel Field-Effect Transistors (TFETs), and assess the DC and high frequency figures of merit. The steep subthreshold behavior can enable I_{ON}/I_{OFF} ratios exceeding 10^4 even with a low supply voltage of 0.15 V, for devices with gatelength down to 30 nm. Intrinsic transistor delays smaller than 1 ps are obtained. These factor…
We evaluate the influence of the Coulomb drag of the electrons and holes in the gated n- and p-regions by the ballistic electrons and holes generated in the depleted i-region due to the interband tunneling on the current-voltage characteristics and impedance of the p+-p-i-n-n+ graphene tunneling transistor structures (GTTSs). The drag leads to a current amplification in the gated n- and p-regions and a positive feedback between the amplified dragged current and the injected tunneling current. A sufficiently strong drag can result in the negative real part of the GTTS impedance enabling the pla…
We have measured the Cooper Pair Transistor (CPT) in a tunable electromagnetic environment consisting of four one-dimensional SQUID arrays. The transport properties of the CPT in the high impedance limit, Z_env>>R_Q=6.45~kΩ, are studied for different ratios of the Josephson coupling energy to the charging energy. As the impedance of the environment is increased, the current-voltage characteristic (IVC) of the CPT develops a Coulomb blockade of Cooper pair tunneling and the measured IVCs agree qualitatively with a theory based on quasicharge dynamics for a CPT. Increasing the impedance of the e…
Field-effect transistors based on band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) have gained a lot of recent interest due to their potential for reducing power dissipation in integrated circuits. In this paper we present a detailed performance comparison between conventional n-i-n MOSFET transistors, and BTBT transistors based on the p-i-n geometry (p-i-n TFET), using semiconducting carbon nanotubes as the model channel material. Quantum transport simulations are performed using the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism including realistic phonon scattering. We find that the TFET can indeed produce subthre…
Thermal transmission in a molecular transistor with fully spin-polarized electrodes subjected to a temperature gradient is considered. The problem has been solved by using density matrix method in perturbation approach over small tunneling width. It has been found that due to the vibronic effects spintronic molecular transistor is characterized by negative differential thermoconductance. It has been demonstrated that in the dependence of thermopower $S$ on the detuning energy there is an increased number of points of change of the sign and magnitude of $S$ comparing with that of conventional m…
In this work, device performances of tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs) based on phosphorene are explored via self-consistent atomistic quantum transport simulations. Phosphorene is an ultra-thin two-dimensional (2-D) material with a direct band gap suitable for TFETs applications. Our simulation shows that phosphorene TFETs exhibit subthreshold slope (SS) below 60 mV/dec and a wide range of on-current depending on the transport direction due to highly anisotropic band structures of phosphorene. By benchmarking with monolayer MoTe2 TFETs, we predict that phosphorene TFETs oriented in t…
Theoretical predictions are made for the current-voltage characteristics of two-dimensional heterojunction interlayer tunneling field-effect transistors (Thin-TFETs), focusing on the magnitude of the current that is achievable in such devices. A theory based on the Bardeen tunneling method is employed, using wavefunctions from first-principles density-functional theory. This method permits convenient incorporation of differing materials into the source and drain electrodes, i.e. with different crystal structures, lattice constants, and/or band structures. Large variations in the tunnel current…
We discuss the properties of devices of small Josephson junctions in the light of the phase fluctuation theory and the energy band structure, which arises from the delocalization of the phase variable. The theory is applied in the realization of a mesoscopic amplifier, the Bloch oscillating transistor. The device characteristics and comparison with theory and simulations are discussed. The current gain of the device in a stable operating mode has been measured to be as high as 30. Measurements on input impedance and the power gain show that the BOT is an amplifier designed for middle-range imp…
We derive self-consistent expressions of current and noise for single-electron transistors driven by time-dependent perturbations. We take into account effects of the electrical environment, higher-order co-tunneling, and time-dependent perturbations under the two-charged state approximation using the Schwinger-Kedysh approach combined with the generating functional technique. For a given generating functional, we derive exact expressions for tunneling currents and noises and present the forms in terms of transport coefficients. It is also shown that in the adiabatic limit our results encompas…
We analyze charge tunneling statistics and current noise in a superconducting single-electron transistor in a regime where the Josephson-quasiparticle cycle is the dominant mechanism of transport. Due to the interplay between Coulomb blockade and Josephson coherence, the probability distribution for tunneling events strongly deviates from a Poissonian and displays a pronounced even--odd asymmetry in the number of transmitted charges. The interplay between charging and coherence is reflected also in the zero-frequency current noise which is significantly quenched when the quasi-particle tunneli…
We consider tunneling transport through a Mn$_{12}$ molecular magnet using spin density functional theory. A tractable methodology for constructing many-body wavefunctions from Kohn-Sham orbitals allows for the determination of spin-dependent matrix elements for use in transport calculations. The tunneling conductance at finite bias is characterized by peaks representing transitions between spin multiplets, separated by an energy on the order of the magnetic anisotropy. The energy splitting of the spin multiplets and the spatial part of their many-body wave functions, describing the orbital de…
The effect of the uniaxial strain on the current-voltage characteristic of a typical armchair graphene-nanoribbon-hBN heterostructure device is simulated numerically by employing the nearest-neighbor tight-binding model and the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism. Simulations clearly reveal the following notable dependencies: (i) the strain invariably reduces the current; (ii) the strain applied in the armchair direction markedly widens the main peak of the current over a larger region of the bias voltage compared with the unstrained state; (iii) the current decreases faster when the st…
We observe a series of sharp resonant features in the differential conductance of graphene-hexagonal boron nitride-graphene tunnel transistors over a wide range of bias voltages between $\sim$10 and 200 mV. We attribute them to electron tunneling assisted by the emission of phonons of well-defined energy. The bias voltages at which they occur are insensitive to the applied gate voltage and hence independent of the carrier densities in the graphene electrodes, so plasmonic effects can be ruled out. The phonon energies corresponding to the resonances are compared with the lattice dispersion curv…
We have measured, in real time, individual quasiparticle tunneling in a single Cooper pair transistor, using rf reflectometry on the supercurrent branch. We have extracted the even-to-odd and odd-to-even transition rates directly by analyzing the distributions of dwell times in the even and odd states of the transistor. We discuss both the measurement and analysis techniques and report on the temperature and gate dependence of the quasiparticle tunneling rates.
In this work, an analytical model to calculate the channel potential and current-voltage characteristics in a Symmetric tunneling Field-Effect-Transistor (SymFET) is presented. The current in a SymFET flows by tunneling from an n-type graphene layer to a p-type graphene layer. A large current peak occurs when the Dirac points are aligned at a particular drain-to- source bias VDS . Our model shows that the current of the SymFET is very weakly dependent on temperature. The resonant current peak is controlled by chemical doping and applied gate bias. The on/off ratio increases with graphene coher…
We provide a detailed study of the interface Trap Assisted Tunneling (TAT) mechanism in tunnel field effect transistors to show how it contributes a major leakage current path before the Band To Band Tunneling (BTBT) is initiated. With a modified Shockley-Read-Hall formalism, we show that at room temperature, the phonon assisted TAT current always dominates and obscures the steep turn ON of the BTBT current for common densities of traps. Our results are applicable to top gate, double gate and gate all around structures where the traps are positioned between the source-channel tunneling region.…
The magnetopolaronic generalization of a Majorana-resonant-level (MRL) model is considered for a single-level vibrating quantum dot coupled to two half-infinite $g=1/2$ Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) leads. A qualitatively new non-trivial formula for the effective transmission coefficient and differential conductance for resonant magnetopolaron-assisted tunneling is obtained under the assumption about a fermion-boson factorization of corresponding averages. This approach is valid for the case of weak magnetopolaronic coupling in a system. Surprisingly, it is found that despite a supposed weak…
Flash memory based on floating gate transistor is the most widely used memory technology in modern microelectronic applications. We recently proposed a new concept of multilayer graphene nanoribbon (MLGNR) and carbon nanotube (CNT) based floating gate transistor design for future nanoscale flash memory technology. In this paper, we analyze the tunneling current mechanism in the proposed graphene-CNT floating gate transistor. We anticipate that the proposed floating gate transistor would adopt Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling during its programming and erase operations. In this paper, we have inv…
Black phosphorus (BP) tunneling transistors (TFETs) using heterojunction (He) are investigated by atomistic quantum transport simulations. It is observed that edge states have a great impact on transport characteristics of BP He-TFETs, which result in the potential pinning effect and deteriorate the gate control. While, on-state current can be effectively enhanced by using hydrogen to saturate the edge dangling bonds in BP He-TFETs, in which edge states are quenched. By extending layered BP with a smaller band gap to the channel region and modulating the BP thickness, device performance of BP …
A theoretical approach for the non-equilibrium transport properties of nanoscale systems coupled to metallic electrodes with strong electron-phonon interactions is presented. It consists in a resummation of the dominant Feynman diagrams from the perturbative expansion in the coupling to the leads. We show that this scheme eliminates the main pathologies found in previous simple analytical approaches for the polaronic regime. The results for the spectral and transport properties are compared with those from several other approaches for a wide range of parameters. The method can be formulated in…
We investigate low-temperature and low-voltage-bias charge transport in a superconducting Al single electron transistor in a dissipating environment, realized as on-chip high-ohmic Cr microstrips. In our samples with relatively large charging energy values Ec > EJ, where EJ is the energy of the Josephson coupling, two transport mechanisms were found to be dominating, both based on discrete tunneling of individual Cooper pairs: Depending on the gate voltage Vg, either sequential tunneling of pairs via the transistor island (in the open state of the transistor around the points Qg = CgVg = e mod…
Graphene/silicon heterostructures have attracted tremendous interest as a new platform for diverse electronic and photonic devices such as barristors, solar cells, optical modulators, and chemical sensors. The studies to date largely focus on junctions between graphene and lightly-doped silicon, where a Schottky barrier is believed to dominate the carrier transport process. Here we report a systematic investigation of carrier transport across the heterojunctions formed between graphene and highly-doped silicon. By varying the silicon doping level and the measurement temperature, we show that t…
We present radio-frequency measurements on a single-Cooper-pair-transistor in which individual quasiparticle poisoning events were observed with microsecond temporal resolution. Thermal activation of the quasiparticle dynamics is investigated, and consequently, we are able to determine energetics of the poisoning and un-poisoning processes. In particular, we are able to assign an effective quasiparticle temperature to parameterize the poisoning rate.
High frequency operation of tunneling real-space transfer transistor (TRSTT) in the negative differential resistance (NDR) regime is assessed by calculating the device common source unity current gain frequency (fT) range with a small signal equivalent circuit model including tunneling. Our circuit model is based on an In0.2Ga0.8As and delta-doped GaAs dual channel structure with various gate lengths. The calculated TRSTT fT agrees very well with experimental data, limiting factor being the resistance of the delta-doped GaAs layer. By optimizing the gate dimensions and channel materials, we fi…
We analyze how decoherence appears in the I-V characteristics of a voltage-biased single-Cooper-pair transistor. Especially the effect on resonant single or several Cooper-pair tunneling is studied. We consider both a symmetric and an asymmetric transistor. As a decoherence source we use a small resistive impedance (Re[Z(w)]<<R_Q=h/4e^2) in series with the transistor, which provides both thermal and quantum fluctuations of the voltage. Additional decoherence sources are quasiparticle tunneling across the Josephson junctions and quantum f-noise caused by spurious charge fluctuators nearby the i…
We theoretically study the tunnel magnetoresistance(TMR) of ferromagnet / superconductor / ferromagnet single-electron tunneling transistors with a special attention to the parity effect. It is shown that in the plateau region, there is no spin accumulation in the island even at finite bias voltage. However, the information of the injected spin is carried by the excess electron and thus the TMR exists. The spin relaxation rate of the excess electron can be estimated from the TMR. We also show that the TMR increases with decreasing the size of the superconducting island.
Temperature is a fundamental parameter in the study of physical phenomena. At the nanoscale, local temperature differences can be harnessed to design novel thermal nanoelectronic devices or test quantum thermodynamical concepts. Determining temperature locally is hence of particular relevance. Here, we present a primary electron thermometer that allows probing the local temperature of a single electron reservoir in single-electron devices. The thermometer is based on cyclic electron tunneling between a system with discrete energy levels and a single electron reservoir. When driven at a finite …
Currents of the single-electron transistors driven by time-dependent fields via external dissipative circuits are investigated theoretically. By expressing the external circuit in terms of driven harmonic oscillators and using the reduced-density operator method, we derive time- and environment-dependent tunneling rates in the regime of sequential tunneling and present expressions for both displacement and tunneling currents with these tunneling rates. It is found that the dissipative environments affect tunneling currents in two ways; the determination of driving voltages at tunneling junctio…
Transport through molecular devices with strong coupling to a single vibrational mode is considered in the case where the vibration is damped by coupling to the environment. We focus on the weak tunneling limit, for which a rate equation approach is valid. The role of the environment can be characterized by a frictional damping term $\mysig(ω)$ and corresponding frequency shift. We consider a molecule that is attached to a substrate, leading to frequency-dependent frictional damping of the single oscillator mode of the molecule, and compare it to a reference model with frequency-independent da…
We report a bipolar field effect tunneling transistor that exploits to advantage the low density of states in graphene and its one atomic layer thickness. Our proof-of-concept devices are graphene heterostructures with atomically thin boron nitride acting as a tunnel barrier. They exhibit room temperature switching ratios ~50, a value that can be enhanced further by optimizing the device structure. These devices have potential for high frequency operation and large scale integration.
We have investigated charge transport processes in a superconducting single-electron transistor (S-SET) fabricated in close proximity to a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. The macroscopic bonding pads of the S-SET along with the 2DEG form a microstrip transmission line. We observe a variety of current-carrying cycles in the S-SET which we attribute to simultaneous tunneling of Cooper pairs and emission of photons into the microstrip. We find good agreement between these experimental results and simulations including both photon emission and photon-assisted …
Transport through molecular devices with weak tunnel coupling to the leads but with strong coupling to a single vibrational mode is considered in the case where the vibration is damped by coupling to the environment. In particular, we investigate what influence the electrostatic coupling of the charge on the molecule to the vibrational modes of the environment has on the $I$-$V$ characteristics. We find that, for comparable characteristic length scales of the van-der-Waals and electrostatic interaction of the molecule with the environmental vibrational modes, the $I$-$V$ characteristics are qu…
We study the nonequilibrium transport for the asymmetric and negative differential magnon tunneling driven by temperature bias. We demonstrate that the many-body magnon interaction that makes the magnonic spectrum temperature-dependent is the crucial factor for the emergence of rectification and negative differential spin Seebeck effects in magnon tunneling junctions. When magnonic junctions have temperature-dependent density of states, reversing the temperature bias is able to give asymmetric spin currents and increasing temperature bias could give an anomalously decreasing magnonic spin curr…
Vertical graphene-based device concepts that rely on quantum mechanical tunneling are intensely being discussed in literature for applications in electronics and optoelectronics. In this work, the carrier transport mechanisms in semiconductor-insulator-graphene (SIG) capacitors are investigated with respect to their suitability as the electron emitter in vertical graphene base transistors (GBTs). Several dielectric materials as tunnel barriers are compared, including dielectric double layers. Using bilayer dielectrics, we experimentally demonstrate significant improvements in the electron inje…
We report about the fabrication and analysis of the properties of Cr/CrO_x/Cr tunnel junctions and SET transistors, prepared by different variants of direct-writing multilayer technique. In all cases, the CrO_x tunnel barriers were formed in air under ambient conditions. From the experiments on single junctions, values for the effective barrier height and thickness were derived. For the Cr/CrO_x/Cr SET transistors we achieved minimal junction areas of 17 x 60 nm^2 using a scanning transmission electron microscope for the e-beam exposure on Si_3N_4 membrane substrate. We discuss the electrical …
We report on the first measurement of the Seebeck coefficient in a tunnel-contacted and gate-tunable individual single-quantum dot junction in the Kondo regime, fabricated using the electromigration technique. This fundamental thermoelectric parameter is obtained by directly monitoring the magnitude of the voltage induced in response to a temperature difference across the junction, while keeping a zero net tunneling current through the device. In contrast to bulk materials and single molecules probed in a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) configuration, investigating the thermopower in nanos…
