Giant Electron-hole Charging Energy Asymmetry in Ultra-short Carbon Nanotubes

Making full usage of bipolar transport in single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) transistors could permit the development of two-in-one quantum devices with ultra-short channels. We report on clean $\sim$10 to 100 nm long suspended SWCNT transistors which display a large electron-hole transport asymmetry. The devices consist of naked SWCNT channels contacted with sections of SWCNT-under-annealed-gold. The annealed gold acts as an n-doping top gate which creates nm-sharp barriers at the junctions between the contacts and naked channel. These tunnel barriers define a single quantum dot (QD) whose charging energies to add an electron or a hole are vastly different ($e-h$ charging energy asymmetry). We parameterize the $e-h$ transport asymmetry by the ratio of the hole and electron charging energies $\eta_{e-h}$. We show that this asymmetry is maximized for short channels and small band gap SWCNTs. In a small band gap SWCNT device, we demonstrate the fabrication of a two-in-one quantum device acting as a QD for holes, and a much longer quantum bus for electrons. In a 14 nm long channel, $\eta_{e-h}$ reaches up to 2.6 for a device with a band gap of 270 meV. This strong $e-h$ transport asymmetry survives even at room temperature

Ultra-short suspended single-wall carbon nanotube transistors

We describe a method to fabricate clean suspended single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) transistors hosting a single quantum dot ranging in length from a few 10 s of nm down to ≈3 nm. We first align narrow gold bow-tie junctions on top of individual SWCNTs and suspend the devices. We then use a feedback-controlled electromigration to break the gold junctions and expose nm-sized sections of SWCNTs. We measure electron transport in these devices at low temperature and show that they form clean and tunable single-electron transistors. These ultra-short suspended transistors offer the prospect of studying THz oscillators with strong electron-vibron coupling

Supramolecular networks stabilise and functionalise black phosphorus

The limited stability of the surface of black phosphorus (BP) under atmospheric conditions is a significant constraint on the exploitation of this layered material and its few layer analogue, phosphorene, as an optoelectronic material. Here we show that supramolecular networks stabilised by hydrogen bonding can be formed on BP, and that these monolayer-thick films can passivate the BP surface and inhibit oxidation under ambient conditions. The supramolecular layers are formed by solution deposition and we use atomic force microscopy to obtain images of the BP surface and hexagonal supramolecular networks of trimesic acid and melamine cyanurate (CA.M) under ambient conditions. The CA.M network is aligned with rows of phosphorus atoms and forms large domains which passivate the BP surface for more than a month, and also provides a stable supramolecular platform for the sequential deposition of 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)benzene to form supramolecular heterostructures

High electron mobility, quantum Hall effect and anomalous optical response in atomically thin InSe

A decade of intense research on two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals has revealed that their properties can differ greatly from those of the parent compound. These differences are governed by changes in the band structure due to quantum confinement and are most profound if the underlying lattice symmetry changes. Here we report a high-quality 2D electron gas in few-layer InSe encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride under an inert atmosphere. Carrier mobilities are found to exceed 103cm2V-1s-1and 104cm2V-1s-1at room and liquid-helium temperatures, respectively, allowing the observation of the fully developed quantum Hall effect. The conduction electrons occupy a single 2D subband and have a small effective mass. Photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals that the bandgap increases by more than 0.5eV with decreasing the thickness from bulk to bilayer InSe. The band-edge optical response vanishes in monolayer InSe, which is attributed to the monolayer's mirror-plane symmetry. Encapsulated 2D InSe expands the family of graphene-like semiconductors and, in terms of quality, is competitive with atomically thin dichalcogenides and black phosphorus.EU, EPSRC. The Royal Societ

Few-Hundred GHz Carbon Nanotube Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS)

We study 23–30 nm long suspended single-wall carbon nanotube quantum dots and observe both their stretching and bending vibrational modes. We use low-temperature DC electron transport to excite and measure the tubes’ bending mode by making use of a positive feedback mechanism between their vibrations and the tunneling electrons. In these nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), we measure fundamental bending frequencies <i>f</i>_bend ≈ 75–280 GHz and extract quality factors <i>Q</i> ∼ 10⁶. The NEMS's frequencies can be tuned by a factor of 2 with tension induced by mechanical breakjunctions actuated by an electrostatic force or tension from bent suspended electrodes

Quasi-two-dimensional thermoelectricity in SnSe

Stannous selenide is a layered semiconductor that is a polar analog of black phosphorus and of great interest as a thermoelectric material. Unusually, hole doped SnSe supports a large Seebeck coefficient at high conductivity, which has not been explained to date. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, optical reflection spectroscopy, and magnetotransport measurements reveal a multiple-valley valence-band structure and a quasi-two-dimensional dispersion, realizing a Hicks-Dresselhaus thermoelectric contributing to the high Seebeck coefficient at high carrier density. We further demonstrate that the hole accumulation layer in exfoliated SnSe transistors exhibits a field effect mobility of up to 250 cm(2)/V s at T = 1.3K. SnSe is thus found to be a high-quality quasi-two-dimensional semiconductor ideal for thermoelectric applications