Resonant tunnelling and negative differential conductance in graphene transistors

The chemical stability of graphene and other free-standing two-dimensional crystals means that they can be stacked in different combinations to produce a new class of functional materials, designed for specific device applications. Here we report resonant tunnelling of Dirac fermions through a boron nitride barrier, a few atomic layers thick, sandwiched between two graphene electrodes. The resonance occurs when the electronic spectra of the two electrodes are aligned. The resulting negative differential conductance in the device characteristics persists up to room temperature and is gate voltage-tuneable due to graphene’s unique Dirac-like spectrum. Although conventional resonant tunnelling devices comprising…

• EC
  European Commission
• UA
  U.S. Air Force
• EA
  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Awards: EP/K005014/1, EP/G035954/1, EP/K031082/1, EP/E036473/1
• OO
  Office of Naval Research
• AF
  Air Force Office of Scientific Research