Graphene-Based Non-Boolean Logic Circuits

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that negative differential resistance in graphene transistors enables the creation of non-Boolean logic circuits, offering a new approach for graphene-based digital electronics despite its lack of a band-gap.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to utilize negative differential resistance in graphene transistors for non-Boolean logic architectures, bypassing the need for a band-gap.

Findings

Negative differential resistance observed in graphene transistors.

NDR appears in both drift-diffusion and ballistic regimes.

Proposes a new route for graphene in information processing.

Abstract

Graphene revealed a number of unique properties beneficial for electronics. However, graphene does not have an energy band-gap, which presents a serious hurdle for its applications in digital logic gates. The efforts to induce a band-gap in graphene via quantum confinement or surface functionalization have not resulted in a breakthrough. Here we show that the negative differential resistance experimentally observed in graphene field-effect transistors of "conventional" design allows for construction of viable non-Boolean computational architectures with the gap-less graphene. The negative differential resistance - observed under certain biasing schemes - is an intrinsic property of graphene resulting from its symmetric band structure. Our atomistic modeling shows that the negative differential resistance appears not only in the drift-diffusion regime but also in the ballistic regime at the nanometer-scale - although the physics changes. The obtained results present a conceptual change in graphene research and indicate an alternative route for graphene's applications in information processing.