Graphene-based ultrafast diode

We present a graphene-based ballistic diode, which is able to rectify an incident signal due to an oblique gate positioned between the two terminals of the device. The operating point of the diode can be controlled by the applied gate voltage, whereas the current-voltage dependence of the device can be changed by varying the inclination angle of the gate. In particular, the ideality factor of the graphene-based diode can take values higher or lower than 1 by modifying this inclination angle. The rectifying properties of the graphene diode are thus tunable, in deep contrast with semiconductor-based diodes. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3501051]