Gate-controlled Guiding of Electrons in Graphene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates gate-controlled electron guiding in graphene using p-n and unipolar fiber-optic analogs, enabling reconfigurable electronic pathways with potential for advanced high-mobility device applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for electron guiding in graphene via gate-controlled p-n and unipolar structures, combining optical analogs with electronic device engineering.

Findings

Guiding efficiency modulated by gating.

Interface roughness limits guiding performance.

Numerical simulations match experimental results.

Abstract

Ballistic semiconductor structures have allowed the realization of optics-like phenomena in electronics, including magnetic focusing and lensing. An extension that appears unique to graphene is to use both n and p carrier types to create electronic analogs of optical devices having both positive and negative indices of refraction. Here, we use gate-controlled density with both p and n carrier types to demonstrate the analog of the fiber-optic guiding in graphene. Two basic effects are investigated: (1) bipolar p-n junction guiding, based on the principle of angle-selective transmission though the graphene p-n interface, and (2) unipolar fiber-optic guiding, using total internal reflection controlled by carrier density. Modulation of guiding efficiency through gating is demonstrated and compared to numerical simulations, which indicates that interface roughness limits guiding performance, with few-nanometer effective roughness extracted. The development of p-n and fiber-optic guiding in graphene may lead to electrically reconfigurable wiring in high-mobility devices.