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Physical Review Letters

Young’s Double-Slit Interference Observation of Hot Electrons in Semiconductors

Kazuhito Furuya, Yasunori Ninomiya, Nobuya Machida, Yasuyuki Miyamoto

Published Nov 19, 2003• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.91.216803

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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.
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 report on a theoretical study of the quantum interference behaviour of electron flow from a double-slit device made from a semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) system with the slit widths in the quantum conductance regime. The device consists of a double slit and a single slit in a configuration where the single slit is placed on the source side of the double slit. The wavefunctions of electrons passing through the double-slit structure are calculated on the basis of a scattering matrix method. It is found that including a single slit between the double slit and the source contact in the device is essential for the observation of interference fringes of electron flow in a double-slit experiment with a 2DEG. When only the lowest mode is open for conduction in the individual slits, the interference patterns of electron flow from the double slit resemble the results of a conventional Young's double-slit experiment well. When several modes are open for conduction in the individual slits, the interference patterns of electron flow from the double slit are dominated by the interference of electrons flowing through the highest index open modes in the slits. As a result of the existence of multiple-lobe structures in electron flow from these high index open modes, these interference patterns, in general, show rather complex structures. We also discuss the characteristics of interference patterns in the near-and far-field regimes and the dependence of the fringe spacing on the slit distance in the double slit.
For realization of quantum coherent devices which use the wavefront of the electron wave, the wavefront spread is important. To investigate the wavefront spread, the double-slit diffraction of hot electrons from a planer tunnel emitter is analyzed. Due to the statistical spread of the transverse momentum of electrons in the emitter electrode, the visibility of the diffraction pattern is less than unity. The wavefront spread is defined as the maximum spacing of the double-slit which provides visibility higher than 1/e. Dependencies of the wavefront spread on various parameters are derived. It increases when the temperature and/or the Fermi energy decreases. For example, when the Fermi energy is 5 meV, spread is 60 and 27 nm at 4 and 77 K, respectively.
Electron double-slit experiments, the essence of quantum mechanical “wave/particle duality”, have been extensively and continuously studied because their unrealistic interpretations have attracted many researchers. Here, we discuss recent sophisticated V-shaped double-slit experiments to elucidate electron-path information, i.e., which slit electrons pass through, which path they pursue, and where they arrive and interfere on the image plane. In a transmission electron microscope, an optically zero-propagation distance condition was realized, where the double-slit position was imaged just on the detector plane. Interference fringes composed of dot images were controlled by using two electron biprisms. Using a V-shaped double slit, we confirmed that it is possible to observe interference fringes only when the path information of individual electrons is not available. Furthermore, we studied how the interference fringes would shift their detected positions when electron wave phases were modulated before illumination to the double slit. Phase shifts were generated by tilting electron beams. We confirmed that each single electron as a wave changed its phase even when it traveled alone inside the microscope.