Charge Based Devices

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss ideal and nonideal conduction behavior of various two terminal and three terminal nanodevices based on semiconducting channels. The end of chapter problems encourage the enthusiastic reader to couple NEGF formalism from the previous chapter to the IV characteristics of the nanodevices discussed in this chapter. For the two terminal devices, the channel is connected to the source and the drain contacts, using which one may inject electrons or holes into the channel and extract electrons or holes out of the channel. Source and drain contacts are also referred to as cathode and anode, respectively, with reference to the electron injection and the extraction. For the three terminal devices, the third contact (called gate) is used to electrostatically control the channel to switch the device between ON and OFF states. The current through the gate contact is usually undesirable and hence termed as the gate leakage current.