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Direct Fabrication of Vertically Stacked Double Barrier Tunnel Junctions Based on Graphene and h-BN

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Abstract

Direct manufacturing of two-dimensional material-based double barrier (DB) tunnel junctions, based on a lithography-free approach was developed. Graphene/h-BN/Graphene/h-BN/Graphene devices were deposited on Si/SiO2 substrates by employing a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique in a sequential manner. DB tunneling junctions with varying barrier widths (by varying the thickness of the second graphene layer) were studied. Samples were characterized using Raman, Atomic Force Microscopy and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The I–V characteristics of tunneling current showed resonant tunneling behavior at room temperature with a negative differential conductance. The behavior could be explained with quantum mechanical double barrier tunneling model in which analytic solutions to Schrödinger’s equation were obtained in each region of the system. Resonances in transmission probability coefficient for varying barrier widths were evaluated and compared with the experimental results.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under Award # DE-SC0019348. We also acknowledge the financial support provided by the Umm Al-Qura University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    Ali Alzahrani, Milinda Kalutara Koralalage & Gamini Sumanasekera

  2. Department of Physics, Al-Qunfudah University College, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Ali Alzahrani

  3. Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    Jacek Jasinski & Gamini Sumanasekera

Authors
  1. Ali Alzahrani
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  2. Milinda Kalutara Koralalage
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  3. Jacek Jasinski
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  4. Gamini Sumanasekera
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by AA, MKK, JJ and GS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AA and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ali Alzahrani.

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Data analyzed during this study will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Alzahrani, A., Kalutara Koralalage, M., Jasinski, J. et al. Direct Fabrication of Vertically Stacked Double Barrier Tunnel Junctions Based on Graphene and h-BN. Electron. Mater. Lett. 18, 313–320 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-022-00342-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-022-00342-y

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