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Journal of Applied Physics

Numerical simulation of hot electron interference in a solid state biprism: Conditions for interference observation

Nobuya Machida, Kazuhito Furuya

Published Sep 1, 2000• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This article describes elucidations of conditions for electron interference observation, device designs, and numerical simulations for the solid-state biprism. The solid-state biprism is solid-state version of the already realized vacuum biprism, and is also proposed as a test ground for electron interference observation and a new conceptual device. Towards the realization of this device, the designed semiconductor device structures show that interference pattern with a pitch of 86 nm and a visibility of 0.6 can be realized with an electron energy of 20 meV, a transverse energy spread of 0.3 meV, and an operation temperature of 4 K.

DOI
10.1063/1.1286202

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This article describes elucidations of conditions for electron interference observation, device designs, and numerical simulations for the solid-state biprism. The solid-state biprism is solid-state version of the already realized vacuum biprism, and is also proposed as a test ground for electron interference observation and a new conceptual device. Towards the realization of this device, the designed semiconductor device structures show that interference pattern with a pitch of 86 nm and a visibility of 0.6 can be realized with an electron energy of 20 meV, a transverse energy spread of 0.3 meV, and an operation temperature of 4 K.
This is a detailed description of the first definite observation of the double-slit interference of a hot electron in a solid. The observation has been achieved by fabricating a double-slit with a 12 nm opening and a 25 nm center-to-center distance and a detection electrode with a 40 nm width. Various inspections are made theoretically to confirm the double-slit diffraction/interference. This achievement will open the door to the creation of solid-state devices with new functions based on the wave nature of electrons.
We have carried out Young's double-slit experiment for the hot-electron wave in man-made semiconductor structures with a 25-nm-space double slit in an InP layer buried within GaInAs, a 190-nm-thick GaInAsP hot-electron wave propagation layer, and a collector array of 80 nm pitch. At 4.2 K, dependences of the collector current on the magnetic field were measured and found to agree clearly with the double-slit interference theory. The present results show evidence for the wave front spread of hot electrons using the three-dimensional state in materials, for the first time, and the possibility of using top-down fabrication techniques to achieve quantum wave front control in materials.
We report a double-slit experiment of hot electrons in a semiconductor under a magnetic field. The pitch of the double slit buried in the semiconductor is 40 nm and the electron energy is of the order of 100 meV. By applying a magnetic field, the change in current that passes through the slits is observed at the segmented collector. The measured current shows a clear minimum around B=0 T, with this behavior agreeing with a theoretical calculation based on double-slit interference. Quantitative estimation is consistent with this order of current variation. We think that these results show evidence of the observation of hot electron interference by a double slit in a semiconductor.
The key features of quantum mechanics are vividly illustrated by the Young-Feynman two-slit thought experiment, whose second part discusses the recording of an electron distribution with one of the two slits partially or totally closed by an aperture. Here, we realize the original Feynman proposal in a modern electron microscope equipped with a high brightness gun and two biprisms, with one of the biprisms used as a mask. By exciting the microscope lenses to conjugate the biprism plane with the slit plane, observations are carried out in the Fraunhofer plane with nearly ideal control of the covering of one of the slits. A second, new experiment is also presented, in which interference phenomena due to partial overlap of the slits are observed in the image plane. This condition is obtained by inserting the second biprism between the two slits and the first biprism and by biasing it in order to overlap their images.
A quantum interference transistor that can be fabricated by available technology and can operate at room temperature is proposed. This device uses the phase interference effect of a vacuum electron that is not influenced by thermal fluctuations, in contrast to an electron in solid-state materials. The device consists of a field emitter, a collector, and segmented capacitors between the emitter and the collector. The capacitors control electron trajectories and the phase interference of the electron in vacuum by their electrical potential. This quantum interference effect is found not to be the same as the Aharonov–Bohm effect contrary to our expectations. We are convinced that the new transistor is capable of room-temperature operation because the large kinetic energy of the electron in vacuum suppresses energy fluctuations caused by the field emission itself and by thermal fluctuations in the emitter material to about 50 meV. The switching time of the transistor is limited in order to average the number of electrons at the collector to allow the emitter-collector current to be a deterministic variable against the quantum stochastic property. The threshold of the switching time is estimated to be of the order of magnitude of 10−11 s for the field emitter reported by C. A. Spindt, I. Brodie, L. Hummphrey, and E. R. Westerberg [J. Appl. Phys. 47, 5248 (1976)].