Final report on LDRD Project: The double electron layer tunneling transistor (DELTT)
- and others
This report describes the research accomplishments achieved under the LDRD Project ``Double Electron Layer Tunneling Transistor.`` The main goal of this project was to investigate whether the recently discovered phenomenon of 2D-2D tunneling in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells (DQWs), investigated in a previous LDRD, could be harnessed and implemented as the operating principle for a new type of tunneling device the authors proposed, the double electron layer tunneling transistor (DELTT). In parallel with this main thrust of the project, they also continued a modest basic research effort on DQW physics issues, with significant theoretical support. The project was a considerable success, with the main goal of demonstrating a working prototype of the DELTT having been achieved. Additional DELTT advances included demonstrating good electrical characteristics at 77 K, demonstrating both NMOS and CMOS-like bi-stable memories at 77 K using the DELTT, demonstrating digital logic gates at 77 K, and demonstrating voltage-controlled oscillators at 77 K. In order to successfully fabricate the DELTT, the authors had to develop a novel flip-chip processing scheme, the epoxy-bond-and-stop-etch (EBASE) technique. This technique was latter improved so as to be amenable to electron-beam lithography, allowing the fabrication of DELTTs with sub-micron features, which are expected to be extremely high speed. In the basic physics area they also made several advances, including a measurement of the effective mass of electrons in the hour-glass orbit of a DQW subject to in-plane magnetic fields, and both measurements and theoretical calculations of the full Landau level spectra of DQWs in both perpendicular and in-plane magnetic fields. This last result included the unambiguous demonstration of magnetic breakdown of the Fermi surface. Finally, they also investigated the concept of a far-infrared photodetector based on photon assisted tunneling in a DQW. Absorption calculations showed a narrowband absorption which persisted to temperatures much higher than the photon energy being detected. Preliminary data on prototype detectors indicated that the absorption is not only narrowband, but can be tuned in energy through the application of a gate voltage.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 666024
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-98-1272; ON: DE98005944; BR: YN0100000; TRN: AHC29819%%179
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Jun 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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