Thermionic electron emission in the 1D edge-to-edge limit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tongyao Zhang ◽  
Hanwen Wang ◽  
Xiuxin Xia ◽  
Chengbing Qin ◽  
Xiaoxi Li

Abstract Thermionic emission is a tunneling phenomenon, which depicts that electrons on the surface of a conductor can be pulled out into the vacuum when they are subjected to high electrical tensions while being heated hot enough to overtake their work functions. This principle has led to the great success of the so-called vacuum tubes in the early 20th century. To date, major challenges still remain in the miniaturization of a vacuum channel transistor for on-chip integration in modern solid-state integrated circuits. Here, by introducing nano-sized vacuum gaps (~200 nm) in a van der Waals heterostructure, we successfully fabricated a one-dimensional (1D) edge-to-edge thermionic emission vacuum tube using graphene as the filament. With the increasing collector voltage, the emitted current exhibited a typical rectifying behavior, with the maximum emission current reaching 200 pA and an On-Off ratio of 103. Besides, it is found that the maximum emission current was proportional to the number of the layers of graphene. Our results expand the studies of the nano-sized vacuum tube to an unexplored physical limit of 1D edge-to-edge emission, and hold great promise for future nano-electronic systems based on it.

Author(s):  
Panpan Chen ◽  
Cong Chen ◽  
Jianxin Xi ◽  
Xiang Du ◽  
Li Liang ◽  
...  

Abstract Vortex lights with optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) have shown great promise in the areas of optical communication, optical manipulation and quantum optics. However, traditional methods for detecting the topological charge of vortex beams, such as interference and diffraction, are still challenging in miniaturization of the detection system and perfect matching of wave vectors. Here, a detection approach is proposed for measuring the topological charge of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) vortex beam based on a catenary grating metasurface. According to the wave vector matching principle, the LG vortex beam can be coupled into surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) waves propagating in different directions by using the well-designed catenary grating structure. The positive and negative of the topological charge can be distinguished by different arrangement of the catenary gratings. Besides, the propagation angle of the launched SPPs waves increases with the value of the topological charge. We believe that the proposed device would have a broader application prospect in high compact photonic integrated circuits.


IEEE Access ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 813-826
Author(s):  
Farid Uddin Ahmed ◽  
Zarin Tasnim Sandhie ◽  
Liaquat Ali ◽  
Masud H. Chowdhury

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. eabd9061
Author(s):  
Shuai Fu ◽  
Indy du Fossé ◽  
Xiaoyu Jia ◽  
Jingyin Xu ◽  
Xiaoqing Yu ◽  
...  

Van der Waals heterostructures consisting of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides have shown great promise for optoelectronic applications. However, an in-depth understanding of the critical processes for device operation, namely, interfacial charge transfer (CT) and recombination, has so far remained elusive. Here, we investigate these processes in graphene-WS2 heterostructures by complementarily probing the ultrafast terahertz photoconductivity in graphene and the transient absorption dynamics in WS2 following photoexcitation. We observe that separated charges in the heterostructure following CT live extremely long: beyond 1 ns, in contrast to ~1 ps charge separation reported in previous studies. This leads to efficient photogating of graphene. Furthermore, for the CT process across graphene-WS2 interfaces, we find that it occurs via photo-thermionic emission for sub-A-exciton excitations and direct hole transfer from WS2 to the valence band of graphene for above-A-exciton excitations. These findings provide insights to further optimize the performance of optoelectronic devices, in particular photodetection.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1304
Author(s):  
Raquel Fernández de Cabo ◽  
David González-Andrade ◽  
Pavel Cheben ◽  
Aitor V. Velasco

Efficient power splitting is a fundamental functionality in silicon photonic integrated circuits, but state-of-the-art power-division architectures are hampered by limited operational bandwidth, high sensitivity to fabrication errors or large footprints. In particular, traditional Y-junction power splitters suffer from fundamental mode losses due to limited fabrication resolution near the junction tip. In order to circumvent this limitation, we propose a new type of high-performance Y-junction power splitter that incorporates subwavelength metamaterials. Full three-dimensional simulations show a fundamental mode excess loss below 0.1 dB in an ultra-broad bandwidth of 300 nm (1400–1700 nm) when optimized for a fabrication resolution of 50 nm, and under 0.3 dB in a 350 nm extended bandwidth (1350–1700 nm) for a 100 nm resolution. Moreover, analysis of fabrication tolerances shows robust operation for the fundamental mode to etching errors up to ± 20 nm. A proof-of-concept device provides an initial validation of its operation principle, showing experimental excess losses lower than 0.2 dB in a 195 nm bandwidth for the best-case resolution scenario (i.e., 50 nm).


2008 ◽  
Vol 1142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Jin ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Scott A Little ◽  
Chris M Day

ABSTRACTWe have created a thermionic cathode structure that consists of a thin tungsten ribbon; carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the ribbon surface; and a thin layer of low work function barium strontium oxide coating on the CNTs. This oxide coated CNT cathode was designed to combine the benefits from the high field enhancement factor from CNTs and the low work function from the emissive oxide coating. The field emission and thermionic emission properties of the cathode have been characterized. A field enhancement factor of 266 and a work function of 1.9 eV were obtained. At 1221 K, a thermionic emission current density of 1.22A/cm2 in an electric field of 1.1 V/μm was obtained, which is four orders of magnitude greater than the emission current density from the uncoated CNT cathode at the same temperature. The high emission current density at such a modest temperature is among the best ever reported for an oxide cathode.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 599
Author(s):  
Jerry R. Meyer ◽  
Chul Soo Kim ◽  
Mijin Kim ◽  
Chadwick L. Canedy ◽  
Charles D. Merritt ◽  
...  

We describe how a midwave infrared photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that combines lasers, detectors, passive waveguides, and other optical elements may be constructed on the native GaSb substrate of an interband cascade laser (ICL) structure. The active and passive building blocks may be used, for example, to fabricate an on-chip chemical detection system with a passive sensing waveguide that evanescently couples to an ambient sample gas. A variety of highly compact architectures are described, some of which incorporate both the sensing waveguide and detector into a laser cavity defined by two high-reflectivity cleaved facets. We also describe an edge-emitting laser configuration that optimizes stability by minimizing parasitic feedback from external optical elements, and which can potentially operate with lower drive power than any mid-IR laser now available. While ICL-based PICs processed on GaSb serve to illustrate the various configurations, many of the proposed concepts apply equally to quantum-cascade-laser (QCL)-based PICs processed on InP, and PICs that integrate III-V lasers and detectors on silicon. With mature processing, it should become possible to mass-produce hundreds of individual PICs on the same chip which, when singulated, will realize chemical sensing by an extremely compact and inexpensive package.


2019 ◽  
Vol 963 ◽  
pp. 832-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Ben Hou ◽  
Per Erik Hellström ◽  
Carl Mikael Zetterling ◽  
Mikael Östling

This paper presents our in-house fabricated 4H-SiC n-p-n phototransistors. The wafer mapping of the phototransistor on two wafers shows a mean maximum forward current gain (βFmax) of 100 at 25 °C. The phototransistor with the highest βFmax of 113 has been characterized from room temperature to 500 °C. βFmax drops to 51 at 400 °C and remains the same at 500 °C. The photocurrent gain of the phototransistor is 3.9 at 25 °C and increases to 14 at 500 °C under the 365 nm UV light with the optical power of 0.31 mW. The processing of the phototransistor is same to our 4H-SiC-based bipolar integrated circuits, so it is a promising candidate for 4H-SiC opto-electronics on-chip integration.


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