Vertical electron transport in van der Waals heterostructures with graphene layers

Journal Article · Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4918313· OSTI ID:22402879

Otsuji, T. ^[1]; Ryzhii, M. ^[2]; Aleshkin, V. Ya.; Dubinov, A. A. ^[3]; Mitin, V. ^[1]; Shur, M. S. ^[4]

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1. Research Institute for Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan)
2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu 965-8580 (Japan)
3. Institute for Physics of Microstructures of RAS and Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation)
4. Department of Electrical, Electronics, and Systems Engineering and Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180 (United States)

We propose and analyze an analytical model for the self-consistent description of the vertical electron transport in van der Waals graphene-layer (GL) heterostructures with the GLs separated by the barriers layers. The top and bottom GLs serve as the structure emitter and collector. The vertical electron transport in such structures is associated with the propagation of the electrons thermionically emitted from GLs above the inter-GL barriers. The model under consideration describes the processes of the electron thermionic emission from and the electron capture to GLs. It accounts for the nonuniformity of the self-consistent electric field governed by the Poisson equation which accounts for the variation of the electron population in GLs. The model takes also under consideration the cooling of electrons in the emitter layer due to the Peltier effect. We find the spatial distributions of the electric field and potential with the high-electric-field domain near the emitter GL in the GL heterostructures with different numbers of GLs. Using the obtained spatial distributions of the electric field, we calculate the current-voltage characteristics. We demonstrate that the Peltier cooling of the two-dimensional electron gas in the emitter GL can strongly affect the current-voltage characteristics resulting in their saturation. The obtained results can be important for the optimization of the hot-electron bolometric terahertz detectors and different devices based on GL heterostructures.

• OSTI ID: 22402879
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 15; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BOLOMETERS
COOLING
DEPLETION LAYER
DIFFUSION BARRIERS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRON CAPTURE
ELECTRON GAS
ELECTRONS
GRAPHENE
HETEROJUNCTIONS
POISSON EQUATION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
THERMIONIC EMISSION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL SYSTEMS
VAN DER WAALS FORCES