Quantum capacitance devices
Abstract
Two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a quantum well or inversion layer, unlike an ordinary grounded metallic plane, does not completely screen an applied transverse electric field. Owing to its Fermi degeneracy energy, a 2DEG manifests itself as a capacitor in series, whose capacitance per unit area equals CQ=me2/πℏ2, where m is the effective electron mass in the direction transverse to the quantum well. Partial penetration of an external field through a highly conducting 2DEG allows the implementation of several novel high-speed devices, including a three-terminal resonant-tunneling transistor and a gate-controlled thermionic emission transistor.
- Publication:
-
Applied Physics Letters
- Pub Date:
- February 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.99649
- Bibcode:
- 1988ApPhL..52..501L
- Keywords:
-
- Capacitance;
- Electric Fields;
- Electron Gas;
- Quantum Wells;
- Transistors;
- Electron Tunneling;
- Resonant Tunneling;
- Thermionic Emission;
- Transconductance;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering