Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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HL: Halbleiterphysik

HL 9: Poster I

HL 9.64: Poster

Monday, March 27, 2006, 15:15–17:45, P3

Inertial ballistic rectification in a top-contact metal-oxide-InAs nanostructure — •Markus Wahle, Thorsten Last, Saskia F. Fischer, and Ulrich Kunze — Werkstoffe und Nanoelektronik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum

Ballistic motion of charge carriers in semiconductors brings about new phenomena which can be explained by a classical billiardlike model. One prominent effect of this kind is the negative bend resistance in cross-shaped devices associated with the current passing around the corner of the junction [1,2]. Here we report on the effect of ballistic rectification in a lateral metal-semiconductor nanostructure. The non-local voltage-current characteristic of a four-probe metal-oxide-InAs structure exhibits a kink centered at zero bias current at low temperatures [3]. At forward current a nearly linear characteristic with an excess resistance of about 2 Ohm can be observed, which gradually decreases with temperature increasing from 2 K up to 20 K. We explain this rectification effect by polarity-dependent ballistic injection of hot electrons from the drift region between the current leads into the adjacent collector region. The experiments indicate a low-temperature ballistic mean free path larger than the distance of 1.8 µm between the nanoscale contacts for current injection and voltage probe.

[1] G. Timp et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 2081 (1988).

[2] Y. Hirayama et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 13465 (1992).

[3] T. Last et al., J. Supercond., in press.