Assessment of field-induced quantum confinement in heterogate germanium electron–hole bilayer tunnel field-effect transistor

Journal Article · Mon Aug 25 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4894088· OSTI ID:22310951

Alper, C.; Ionescu, A. M. ^[1]; Gámiz, F. ^[2]

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1. Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne CH-1015 (Switzerland)
2. Departamento de Electrónica y Tecnología de los Computadores, Universidad de Granada, Avda. Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada (Spain)

The analysis of quantum mechanical confinement in recent germanium electron–hole bilayer tunnel field-effect transistors has been shown to substantially affect the band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) mechanism between electron and hole inversion layers that constitutes the operating principle of these devices. The vertical electric field that appears across the intrinsic semiconductor to give rise to the bilayer configuration makes the formerly continuous conduction and valence bands become a discrete set of energy subbands, therefore increasing the effective bandgap close to the gates and reducing the BTBT probabilities. In this letter, we present a simulation approach that shows how the inclusion of quantum confinement and the subsequent modification of the band profile results in the appearance of lateral tunneling to the underlap regions that greatly degrades the subthreshold swing of these devices. To overcome this drawback imposed by confinement, we propose an heterogate configuration that proves to suppress this parasitic tunneling and enhances the device performance.

• OSTI ID: 22310951
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 105; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CHARGES
CONFIGURATION
CONFINEMENT
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
EQUIPMENT
FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS
GERMANIUM
HOLES
INCLUSIONS
LAYERS
MODIFICATIONS
PROBABILITY
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SIMULATION
TUNNEL EFFECT