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Register a new userUsing light and heat to controllably switch and reset disorder configuration in nanoscale devices
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Quantum dots exhibit reproducible conductance fluctuations at low temperatures due to electron quantum interference. The sensitivity of these fluctuations to the underlying disorder potential has only recently been fully realized. We exploit this sensitivity to obtain a novel tool for better understanding the role that background impurities play in the electrical properties of high-mobility AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures and nanoscale devices. In particular, we report the remarkable ability to first alter the disorder potential in an undoped AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure by optical illumination and then reset it back to its initial configuration by room temperature thermal cycling in the dark. We attribute this behavior to a mixture of C background impurities acting as shallow acceptors and deep trapping by Si impurities. This alter and reset capability, not possible in modulation-doped heterostructures, offers an exciting route to studying how scattering from even small densities of charged impurities influences the properties of nanoscale semiconductor devices.
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Heat produced during a reset operation is meant to show a fundamental bound known as Landauer limit, while simple switch operations have an expected minimum amount of produced heat equal to zero. However, in both cases, present-day technology realizations dissipate far beyond these theoretical limits. In this paper we present a study based on molecular dynamics simulations, where reset and switch protocols are applied on a graphene buckled ribbon, employed here as a nano electromechanical switch working at the thermodynamic limit.
Nanoscale solid-solid contacts define a wealth of material behaviours from the electrical and thermal conductivity in modern electronic devices to friction and losses in micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems. For modern ultra-high integration processor chips, power electronic devices and thermoelectrics one of the most essential, but thus far most challenging, aspects is the assessment of the heat transport at the nanoscale sized interfaces between their components. While this can be effectively addressed by a scanning thermal microscopy, or SThM, which demonstrates the highest spatial resolution to thermal transport to date, SThM quantitative capability is undermined by the poorly defined nature of the nanoscale contact between the probe tip and the sample. Here we show that simultaneous measurements of the shear force and the heat flow in the probe-sample junction shows distinct correlation between thermal conductance and maximal shear force in the junction for multiple probe-material combinations. Quantitative analysis of this correlation confirmed the intrinsic ballistic nature of the heat transport in the tip-surface nanoscale contact suggesting that they are, ultimately, composed of near-atomic sized regions. Furthermore, in analogy to the Wiedemann-Franz law, which links electrical and thermal conductivity in metals, we suggest and experimentally confirm a general relation that links shear strength and thermal conductance in nanoscale contacts via the fundamental material properties of heat capacity and heat carrier group velocity, thus opening new avenues for quantitative exploration of thermal transport on the nanoscale.
Solid state ionic conductors are good candidates for the next generation of nonvolatile computer memory elements. Such devices have to show reproducible resistance switching at reasonable voltage and current values even if scaled down to the nanometer sizes. Here we study the switching characteristics of nanoscale junctions created between a tungsten tip and a silver film covered by a thin ionic conductor layer. Atomic-sized junctions show spectacular current induced switching characteristics, but both the magnitude of the switching voltage and the direction of the switching vary randomly for different junctions. In contrast, for somewhat larger junctions with diameters of a few nanometers a well defined, reproducible switching behavior is observed which is associated with the formation and destruction of nanoscale channels in the ionic conductor surface layer. Our results define a low size limit of 3 nm for reliable ionic nano-switches, which is well below the resolution of recent lithographic techniques.
We aim to provide engineers with an introduction to the non-equilibrium Greens function (NEGF) approach, which provides a powerful conceptual tool and a practical analysis method to treat small electronic devices quantum mechanically and atomistically. We first review the basis for the traditional, semiclassical description of carriers that has served device engineers for more than 50 years. We then describe why this traditional approach loses validity at the nanoscale. Next, we describe semiclassical ballistic transport and the Landauer-Buttiker approach to phase coherent quantum transport. Realistic devices include interactions that break quantum mechanical phase and also cause energy relaxation. As a result, transport in nanodevices are between diffusive and phase coherent. We introduce the non equilbrium Greens function (NEGF) approach, which can be used to model devices all the way from ballistic to diffusive limits. This is followed by a summary of equations that are used to model a large class of layered structures such as nanotransistors, carbon nanotubes and nanowires. An application of the NEGF method in the ballistic and scattering limits to silicon nanotransistors is discussed.
This mini-review is intended as a short introduction to electron flow in nanostructures. Its aim is to provide a brief overview of this topic for people who are interested in the thermodynamics of quantum systems but know little about nanostructures. We particularly emphasize devices that work in the steady-state, such as simple thermoelectrics, but also mention cyclically driven heat engines. We do not aim to be either complete or rigorous, but use a few pages to outline some of the main ideas in the topic.
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