The features of the spin and charge transport of electrons and holes in a metal and a semiconductor were studied using the Boltzmann transport equations. It was shown that the electrons and holes carry the spin in opposite directions in an electrical current. As result, the spin polarization of an electrical current in a metal is substantially smaller than spin polarization of electron gas. It was shown that the spin properties of the electron gas are responsible for the existence of the concept of "electrons" and "holes" in a metal and a semiconductor.
The potential of semiconductors assembled from nanocrystals (NC semiconductors) has been demonstrated for a broad array of electronic and optoelectronic devices, including transistors, light emitting diodes, solar cells, photodetectors, thermoelectrics, and phase charge memory cells. Despite the commercial success of nanocrystals as optical absorbers and emitters, applications involving charge transport through NC semiconductors have eluded exploitation due to the inability for predictive control of their electronic properties. Here, we perform large-scale, ab-initio simulations to understand …
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have shown great promise in (opto)electronic applications. However, their developments are limited by a large Schottky barrier (SB) at the metal-semiconductor junction (MSJ), which is difficult to tune by using conventional metals due to the strong Fermi level pinning (FLP) effect. Here we show that, this problem can be overcome by using 2D metals, which are bounded with 2D semiconductors through van der Waals (vdW) interaction. This success relies on a weak FLP at the vdW MSJ, which is attributed to the suppression of metal-induced gap states. Consequently,…
In search of an improved strategy to form low resistance contacts to MoS2 and related semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, we use ab initio density functional electronic structure calculations in order to determine the equilibrium geometry and electronic structure of MoO3/MoS2 and MoO2/MoS2 bilayers. Our results indicate that, besides a rigid band shift associated with charge transfer, the presence of molybdenum oxide modifies the electronic structure of MoS2 very little. We find that the charge transfer in the bilayer provides a sufficient degree of hole doping to MoS2, resulting …
We present electron energy-loss spectroscopic measurements of potassium (K) intercalated tungsten diselenide (WSe2). After exposure of pristine WSe2 films to potassium, we observe a charge carrier plasmon excitation at about 0.97 eV, which indicates a semiconductor to metal transition. Our data signal the formation of one particular doped K-WSe2 phase. A Kramers-Kronig analysis (KKA) allows the determination of the dielectric function and to estimate the composition of about K0.6WSe2. Momentum dependent measurements reveal a substantial plasmon dispersion to higher energies.
We point out that the effective channel for the interfacial thermal conductance, the inverse of Kapitza resistance, of metal-insulator/semiconductor interfaces is governed by the electron-phonon interaction mediated by the surface states allowed in a thin region near the interface. Our detailed calculations demonstrate that the interfacial thermal conductance across Pb/Pt/Al/Au-diamond interfaces are only slightly different among these metals, and reproduce well the experimental results of the interfacial thermal conductance across metal-diamond interfaces observed by Stoner et al. [Phys. Rev.…
To fully deploy the potential of semiconductor nanocrystal films as low-cost electronic materials, a better understanding of the amount of dopants required to make their conductivity metallic is needed. In bulk semiconductors, the critical concentration of electrons at the metal-insulator transition is described by the Mott criterion. Here, we theoretically derive the critical concentration $n_c$ for films of heavily doped nanocrystals devoid of ligands at their surface and in direct contact with each other. In the accompanying experiments, we investigate the conduction mechanism in films of p…
We describe recent experimental efforts to perform polarization-resolved optical spectroscopy of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductors in very large pulsed magnetic fields to 65 tesla. The experimental setup and technical challenges are discussed in detail, and temperature-dependent magneto-reflection spectra from atomically thin tungsten disulphide (WS$_2$) are presented. The data clearly reveal not only the valley Zeeman effect in these 2D semiconductors, but also the small quadratic exciton diamagnetic shift from which the very small exciton size can be directly inferred.…
The metal-semiconductor (M-S) junction based devices are commonly used in all sorts of electronic devices. Their electrical properties are defined by the metallic phase properties with a respect to the semiconductor used. Here we make an in-depth survey on the origin of the M-S junction at the atomic scale by studying the properties of the AuIn2 nanoelectrodes formed on the InP(001) surface by the in situ electrical measurements in combination with a detailed investigation of atomically resolved structure supported by the first-principle calculations of its local electrical properties. We have…
Spin-1 condensed matter systems characterized by the combination of a Dirac-like dispersion and flat bands are ideal for realizing high-temperature electronics and spintronic technologies in the absence of external magnetic field. In this study, we propose a three-band tight binding model, with spin-polarized Haldane-like next-nearest-neighbour tunnelling, on dice lattice and show that spin-1 Dirac half-metal, spin-1 Dirac spin-gapless semiconductor, and spin-polarized spin-1 massive Dirac dispersion with nontrivial topology can exist in two-dimensional ferromagnetic condensed matter systems w…
Two-dimensional (2D) materials are a new class of materials with interesting physical properties and applications ranging from nanoelectronics to sensing and photonics. In addition to graphene, the most studied 2D material, monolayers of other layered materials such as semiconducting dichalcogenides MoS2 or WSe2 are gaining in importance as promising channel materials for field-effect transistors (FETs) and phototransistors. However, it is unclear that how the specific process of electron transport is affected by temperature. So, nowadays the electron dynamics of single-layer semiconductor can…
The band alignment of semiconductor-metal interfaces plays a vital role in modern electronics, but remains difficult to predict theoretically and measure experimentally. For interfaces with strong band bending a main difficulty originates from the in-built potentials which lead to broadened and shifted band spectra in spectroscopy measurements. In this work we present a method to resolve the band alignment of buried semiconductor-metal interfaces using core level photoemission spectroscopy and self-consistent electronic structure simulations. As a proof of principle we apply the method to a cl…
The search for half-metals and spin-gapless semiconductors has attracted extensive attention in material design for spintronics. Existing progress in such a search often requires peculiar atomistic lattice configuration and also lacks active control of the resulting electronic properties. Here we reveal that a boron-nitride nanoribbon with a carbon-doped edge can be made a half-metal or a spin-gapless semiconductor in a programmable fashion. The mechanical strain serves as the on/off switches for functions of half-metal and spin-gapless semiconductor to occur. Our findings shed light on how th…
Using the tight-binding model and the generalized Green's function formalism, the effect of quantum interference on the electron transport through the benzene molecule in a semiconductor/benzene/semiconductor junction is numerically investigated. We show how the quantum interference sources, different contact positions and local gate, can control the transmission characteristics of the electrode/molecule/electrode junction. We also study the occurrence of anti-resonant states in the transmission probability function using a simple graphical scheme (introduced in Ref.[Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys, 20…
The impact of semiconductor surface roughness on the electrical and thermal contact resistances and thermoEMF of thermoelectric material (TEM)-metal transient contact layer is studied theoretically. The distribution of hollows and humps on the rough surface is simulated by the truncated Gaussian distribution. The impact of distribution parameters on the electrical contact resistance and thermoEMF of thermoelectric material-metal contact is studied.
Two-dimensional polyaniline sheet has been recently synthesized and found that it is a semiconductor with indirect band gap. Polyaniline nanoribbons decomposed from two-dimensional polyaniline sheet (C3N sheet) are investigated using density functional theory. The existence of nitrogen atoms in the edge of the ribbons increases stability and magnetization of the ribbons and make them different from graphene nanoribbons. Unsaturated nanoribbons are magnetic metals so that armchair C3N nanoribbons are gap-less spin semicon- ductors in the antiferromagnetic state and half-metals in the ferromagne…
Elemental tellurium is a strongly spin-orbit coupled Peierls-distorted semiconductor whose band structure features topologically protected Weyl nodes. Using time-dependent density functional theory calculations, we show that impulsive optical excitation can be used to transiently control the amplitude of the Peierls distortion, realizing a mechanism to switch tellurium between three states: Weyl semiconductor, Weyl metal and non-Weyl metal. Further, we present experimental evidence of this inverse-Peierls distortion using time-resolved optical second harmonic generation measurements. These res…
Moderate amount of bending strains, ~3% are enough to induce the semiconductor-metal transition in Si nanowires of ~4nm diameter. The influence of bending on silicon nanowires of 1 nm to 4.3 nm diameter is investigated using molecular dynamics and quantum transport simulations. Local strains in nanowires are analyzed along with the effect of bending strain and nanowire diameter on electronic transport and the transmission energy gap. Interestingly, relatively wider nanowires are found to undergo semiconductor-metal transition at relatively lower bending strains. The effect of bending strain on…
Lateral-hetero structures of atomic layered materials alter the electronic properties of pristine crystals and provide a possibility to produce useful monolayer materials. We reveal that metal-semiconductor-metal lateral-hetero junctions of $1H$-transition-metal dichalcogenides intrinsically possess conducting channels of electrons with spin-valley locking, e.g., gate electrode. We theoretically investigate the electronic structure and transport properties of the lateral-hetero junctions and show that the hetero-structure produces conducting channels through the $K$ and $K'$ valleys in the sem…
Diminished Short Channel Effects in Nanoscale Double-Gate Silicon-On-Insulator Metal-Oxide- Semiconductor Field-Effect-Transistors due to Induced Back-Gate Step Potential
We review experimental and theoretical results on thermal transport in semiconductor nanostructures (multilayer thin films, core/shell and segmented nanowires), single- and few-layer graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, molybdenum disulfide and black phosphorus. Different possibilities of phonon engineering for optimization of electrical and heat conductions are discussed. The role of the phonon energy spectra modification on the thermal conductivity in semiconductor nanostructures is revealed. The dependence of thermal conductivity in graphene and related two-dimensional (2D) materials on tempe…
A multiscale simulation approach is developed to simulate the contact transport properties between semimetal to a monolayer two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductor. The results elucidate the mechanisms for low contact resistance between semimetal and TMDC semiconductor contacts from a quantum transport perspective. The simulation results compare favorably with recent experiments. Furthermore, the results show that the contact resistance of a Bismuth-MoS2 contact can be further reduced by engineering the dielectric environment and doping the TMDC material to <1…
In this paper, we demonstrate the principle of operation of a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitor based on undoped organic semiconductor. In spite of low charge concentration within the semiconductor, this device exhibits a capacitance variation with respect to applied gate voltage $V_g$, resembling the capacitance-voltage $C$-$V$ characteristics of a traditional doped semiconductor based MIS capacitor. A physics based model is developed to derive charge concentration, surface potential $ψ_s$ and the capacitance of organic MIS capacitor. The model is validated with TCAD simulation re…
The semiconductor-metal junction is one of the most critical factors for high performance electronic devices. In two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor devices, minimizing the voltage drop at this junction is particularly challenging and important. Despite numerous studies concerning contact resistance in 2D semiconductors, the exact nature of the buried interface under a three-dimensional (3D) metal remains unclear. Herein, we report the direct measurement of electrical and optical responses of 2D semiconductor-metal buried interfaces using a recently developed metal-assisted transfer technique t…
