Improving the collection efficiency in the hot carrier tunneling device by optimizing the thickness of tunneling barrier for balancing the acceleration and scattering processes

Improving the collection efficiency is one of the major challenges in fabricating high performance gated hot carrier tunneling devices that have important applications in electronics and optoelectronics. In this work, a general model for a gated hot carrier tunneling device has been established to figure out the optimized thickness of a tunneling barrier for maximizing the collection efficiency. Simulation indicates that the maximum efficiency increases with the field F, the tunneling barrier height Phi(0), and the mean free path k but decreases with the threshold energy E-t. In addition, the optimal thickness of the tunneling barrier decreases as F and Phi(0) increase or lambda and E-t decrease, which varies from similar to 6 to similar to 9 nm depending on the above-mentioned parameters. To verify the model, electron emission characteristics of a few layers graphene (FLG)/h-BN/FLG heterostructure with different thickness of h-BN have been measured. A similar dependence of the averaged emission efficiency on the h-BN thickness has been obtained, which can be fitted by an extended model for the case of FLG/h-BN/FLG with consideration of a hot hole-induced Auger process. All the results are useful for designing a high performance hot carrier tunneling device.Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0138120

Automated summary

The study establishes a general model for a gated hot carrier tunneling device to determine the optimized thickness of a tunneling barrier for improving the collection efficiency. Simulation results show that the maximum efficiency is influenced by the field strength, tunneling barrier height, mean free path, and threshold energy. Additionally, experimental measurements on a graphene/h-BN/graphene heterostructure confirm the model and provide insight into the emission efficiency as a function of h-BN thickness.