Resonant tunneling diode based on graphene/h-BN heterostructure

TL;DR

This paper introduces a graphene/BN heterostructure resonant tunneling diode that leverages atomic-scale engineering to achieve negative differential conductance with high peak-to-valley ratios at room temperature.

Contribution

It presents a novel RTD design based on graphene/BN heterostructures and models its electronic behavior using non-equilibrium Green's functions.

Findings

Achieves a peak-to-valley ratio of 4 with gapless graphene.

Reaches a peak-to-valley ratio of 13 with a 50 meV bandgap.

Demonstrates room temperature operation of the RTD.

Abstract

In this letter, we propose the resonant tunneling diode (RTD) based on a double-barrier graphene/boron nitride (BN) heterostructure as device suitable to take advantage of the elaboration of atomic sheets containing different domains of BN and C phases within a hexagonal lattice. The device operation and performance are investigated by means of a self- consistent model within the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism on a tight-binding Hamiltonian. This RTD exhibits a negative differential conductance effect which involves the resonant tunneling through both the electron and hole bound states of the graphene quantum well. It is shown that the peak- to-valley ratio can reach the value of 4 at room temperature for gapless graphene and the value of 13 for a bandgap of 50 meV.