A nanoscale transistor based on gate-induced stochastic transitions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a nanoscale device leveraging quantum and thermal stochastic effects, enabling multiple functionalities such as switching between transistor and resistor modes with rapid transition times and high transconductance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanoscale transistor design that uses gate-induced stochastic transitions to achieve multiple functionalities and high performance metrics.

Findings

Switching times as short as picoseconds.

Transconductance exceeding the conductance quantum $G_0=2e^2/h$.

Device can switch between ohmic and non-ohmic behavior.

Abstract

A nanoscale device consisting of a metal nanowire, a dielectric, and a gate is proposed. A combination of quantum and thermal stochastic effects enable the device to have multiple functionalities, serving alternately as a transistor, a variable resistor, or a simple resistive element with $I-V$ characteristics that can switch between ohmic and non-ohmic. By manipulating the gate voltage, stochastic transitions between different conducting states of the nanowire can be induced, with a switching time as short as picoseconds. With an appropriate choice of dielectric, the transconductance of the device can significantly exceed the conductance quantum $G_0=2e^2/h$, a remarkable figure of merit for a device at this lengthscale.