Chirality-induced intrinsic charge rectification in a tellurium-based field-effect transistor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that applying a magnetic field and gate voltage to a chiral tellurium FET induces significant charge rectification due to band structure asymmetry, with enhanced efficiency and robustness.

Contribution

It reveals a novel mechanism of charge rectification in chiral semiconductors driven by magnetic field and gating, without p-n junctions.

Findings

Charge rectification is enhanced hundredfold by gating.

Magnetic field induces asymmetry in chiral band structure.

Carrier density near the valence band maximum is increased by a saddle point.

Abstract

We report gate-induced enhancement of intrinsic charge rectification without p-n junctions in chiral semiconductor Te under magnetic field B. As gating shifts the chemical potential to the valence band maximum of Te, the charge rectification efficiency is enhanced hundredfold. By integrating model calculations, we attribute the charge rectification to the B-induced asymmetry of the chiral band structure. We also show that the carrier density subject to this asymmetry is augmented by a saddle-point structure near the valence band maximum, which further enhances the gate-tunable charge rectification together with its improved switchability and thermal robustness.