No Arabic abstract
Metal/two-dimensional carbon junctions are characterized by using a nanoprobe in an ultrahigh vacuum environment. Significant differences were found in bias voltage (V) dependence of differential conductance (dI/dV) between edge- and side-contact; the former exhibits a clear linear relationship (i.e., dI/dV propto V), whereas the latter is characterized by a nonlinear dependence, dI/dV propto V3/2. Theoretical calculations confirm the experimental results, which are due to the robust two-dimensional nature of the carbon materials under study. Our work demonstrates the importance of contact geometry in graphene-based electronic devices.
Step junctions are often present in layered materials, i.e. where single-layer regions meet multi-layer regions, yet their effect on thermal transport is not understood to date. Here, we measure heat flow across graphene junctions (GJs) from monolayer to bilayer graphene, as well as bilayer to four-layer graphene for the first time, in both heat flow directions. The thermal conductance of the monolayer-bilayer GJ device ranges from ~0.5 to 9.1x10^8 Wm-2K-1 between 50 K to 300 K. Atomistic simulations of such GJ device reveal that graphene layers are relatively decoupled, and the low thermal conductance of the device is determined by the resistance between the two dis-tinct graphene layers. In these conditions the junction plays a negligible effect. To prove that the decoupling between layers controls thermal transport in the junction, the heat flow in both directions was measured, showing no evidence of thermal asymmetry or rectification (within experimental error bars). For large-area graphene applications, this signifies that small bilayer (or multilayer) islands have little or no contribution to overall thermal transport.
In an idealized infinite crystal, the material properties are constrained by the symmetries of its unit cell. Naturally, the point-group symmetry is broken by the sample shape of any finite crystal, yet this is commonly unobservable in macroscopic metals. To sense the shape-induced symmetry lowering in such metals, long-lived bulk states originating from anisotropic Fermi surfaces are needed. Here we show how strongly facetted Fermi surfaces and long quasiparticle mean free paths present in microstructures of PdCoO2 yield an in-plane resistivity anisotropy that is forbidden by symmetry on an infinite hexagonal lattice. Bar shaped transport devices narrower than the mean free path are carved from single crystals using focused ion beam (FIB) milling, such that the ballistic charge carriers at low temperatures frequently collide with both sidewalls defining a channel. Two symmetry-forbidden transport signatures appear: the in-plane resistivity anisotropy exceeds a factor of 2, and transverse voltages appear in zero magnetic field. We robustly identify the channel direction as the source of symmetry breaking via ballistic Monte- Carlo simulations and numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation.
We study electron transport through a multichannel fractional quantum Hall edge in the presence of both interchannel interaction and random tunneling between channels, with emphasis on the role of contacts. The prime example in our discussion is the edge at filling factor 2/3 with two counterpropagating channels. Having established a general framework to describe contacts to a multichannel edge as thermal reservoirs, we particularly focus on the line-junction model for the contacts and investigate incoherent charge transport for an arbitrary strength of interchannel interaction beneath the contacts and, possibly different, outside them. We show that the conductance does not explicitly depend on the interaction strength either in or outside the contact regions (implicitly, it only depends through renormalization of the tunneling rates). Rather, a long line-junction contact is characterized by a single parameter which defines the modes that are at thermal equilibrium with the contact and is determined by the interplay of various types of scattering beneath the contact. This parameter -- playing the role of an effective interaction strength within an idealized model of thermal reservoirs -- is generically nonzero and affects the conductance. We formulate a framework of fractionalization-renormalized tunneling to describe the effect of disorder on transport in the presence of interchannel interaction. Within this framework, we give a detailed discussion of charge equilibration for arbitrarily strong interaction in the bulk of the edge and arbitrary effective interaction characterizing the line-junction contacts.
Electrical contact resistance to two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors such as monolayer MoS_{2} is a key bottleneck in scaling the 2D field effect transistors (FETs). The 2D semiconductor in contact with three-dimensional metal creates unique current crowding that leads to increased contact resistance. We developed a model to separate the contribution of the current crowding from the intrinsic contact resistivity. We show that current crowding can be alleviated by doping and contact patterning. Using Landauer-Buttiker formalism, we show that van der Waals (vdW) gap at the interface will ultimately limit the electrical contact resistance. We compare our models with experimental data for doped and undoped MoS_{2} FETs. Even with heavy charge-transfer doping of > 2x10^{13} cm^{-2}, we show that the state-of-the-art contact resistance is 100 times larger than the ballistic limit. Our study highlights the need to develop efficient interface to achieve contact resistance of < 10 {Omega}.{mu}m, which will be ideal for extremely scaled devices.
Spin-dependent coherent quantum transport through carbon nanotubes (CNT) is studied theoretically within a tight-binding model and the Greens function partitioning technique. End-contacted metal/nanotube/metal systems are modelled and next studied in the magnetic context, i.e. either with ferromagnetic electrodes or at external magnetic fields. The former case shows that quite a substantial giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect occurs ($pm 20%$) for disorder-free CNTs. Anderson-disorder averaged GMR, in turn, is positive and reduced down to several percent in the vicinity of the charge neutrality point. At parallel magnetic fields, characteristic Aharonov-Bohm-type oscillations are revealed with pronounced features due to a combined effect of: length-to-perimeter ratio, unintentional electrode-induced doping, Zeeman splitting, and energy-level broadening. In particular, a CNT is predicted to lose its ability to serve as a magneto-electrical switch when its length and perimeter become comparable. In case of perpendicular geometry, there are conductance oscillations approaching asymptotically the upper theoretical limit to the conductance, $4 e^2/h$. Moreover in the ballistic transport regime, initially the conductance increases only slightly with the magnetic field or remains nearly constant because spin up- and spin down-contributions to the total magnetoresistance partially compensate each other.