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In the presence of structural disorders, carrier conduction via localized hopping sites emerges in two-dimensional systems and results in a unique thermopower characteristic with T1/3 dependence. The disorders induced potential differences of hopping sites leading to energy variations along current-carrying paths. A systematic thermoelectric study is presently required in comprehending the statistical effects. Therefore, we proposed a statistical model of the Seebeck coefficient on the basis of percolation theory and hopping mechanisms. With this model, the carrier density and temperature dependences can be practically predicted. Key parameters can be extracted by calibration to molybdenum disulfide and black phosphorus experiments, providing a deeper insight into device physics. Moreover, a Mott-like analytical model is developed to investigate the parametric dependence. The thermopower deviations from the noninteracting Mott picture at high and low temperatures are analyzed. Finally, the temperature dependence on the thermoelectric figure of merit is evaluated in a variable range hopping regime. Our model is essential for a reliable prediction of the disorder induced statistical effects on thermoelectric behaviors, which guides both device optimization and material engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stable precession region in the spintronic oscillator with an in-plane magnetic tunnel junction is very narrow under small external fields, restricting its applications such as for microwave generators. Here, we show that this region can be greatly enlarged by introducing competing effects between different torques. Moreover, we observe large-angle precessions at zero external field, which leads to large output power. We further evaluate the oscillator performance in a voltage-input device, where the circuit area can be minimized and the difficulty in accurate current control can be resolved. The operating voltage window in the proposed device is over 1.23 V, and its frequency can be adjusted from 1.6 to 4.9 GHz. A maximum output power of 0.28 μW is obtained at an energy consumption of 2.2 mW. This study should provide insights into designing voltage-input spintronic oscillators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical model based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation is developed to study the effect of damping-like spin-orbit torque in ferrimagnets, which can capture many experimental findings. For example, the sample changes from Gd to FeCo dominate by increasing temperature, the damping-like spin-orbit torque has a peak at the magnetization compensation temperature, and angular-momentum compensation temperature increases as a function of Gd concentration. In contrast to the ferromagnet system, the switching trajectory in ferrimagnets is found to be precession free. The two sublattices are not always collinear, which produce a large exchange field affecting the magnetization dynamics. The study of material composition shows the existence of an oscillation region at intermediate current density, induced by the nondeterministic switching. Compared to the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert model, our developed model based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation enables the systematic study of the spin-torque effect and the evaluation of ferrimagnet-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A surface potential based compact model for two-dimensional field effect transistors (2D-FETs) is proposed to incorporate the structural disorders induced transition behaviors among variable range hopping (VRH), nearest neighbor hopping (NNH), and band-like transport in most 2D materials. These functions coupled with effective transport energy and multiple trapping and releasing theory enable our developed model to predict the temperature and carrier density dependent current characteristics. Its validity is confirmed by the experimental results such as the metal insulator transition (MIT) in transition metal dichalcogenides and VRH-NNH transition in black phosphorus nanoribbon. Based on this model, the band-tail effects on the crossover gate voltage of MIT behavior are quantitatively investigated. It is found that the transition behavior is closely related to the distribution of the band-tail states. Furthermore, this model is implemented in Verilog-A for circuit-level prediction and evaluation of 2D-FETs to provide deeper insight into the relationship between material properties, device physics, and circuit performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of phase-transition from the quantum-spin-hall to the band-insulator phase on the transport through a three-terminal U-shape spin-separator has been computationally investigated via non-equilibrium green function formalism. Two-dimensional group-IV elements have been comprehensively appraised as the device material. The device separates the unpolarized current injected at the source-terminal into nearly 100% spin-polarized currents of the opposite polarities at the two drain terminals. The phase-transition activated by the electric-field orthogonal to the device is shown to extensively influence the current magnitude and its spin-polarization, and the effect is stronger for materials with smaller intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. Moreover, the device length and the area under field are shown to critically affect the device characteristics on phase change. It is shown that the same device can be operated as a spin-filter by inducing phase-transition selectively in the channel. The results are important for designing spin-devices from Group-IV monolayers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using ab-initio method and ballistic transport model, we study electron and phonon energy dispersion relations of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides: MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2. Their electron and heat transports as well as their thermoelectric properties are also studied under linear response regime with different doping types, crystal orientations, and temperatures. Our results show that electron and phonon transports are not very sensitive to crystal orientations because the differences between group velocity and transmission of these carriers along different transport directions are not significant. Furthermore, as temperature increases, first peak values of thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT1st peak) increase linearly except for monolayer n-type WSe2/MoSe2 and p-type WS2, which have higher increasing rates when temperature is high due to the electron transport contribution from an additional valley. Among these various conditions, the results show that all monolayers have similar ZT1st peak at low temperatures below 100 K, and p-type monolayer MoS2 has the largest ZT1st peak at room temperature while n-type WSe2 has the largest ZT1st peak at high temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-dependent nonequilibrium Green's functions are used to study electron transport properties in a device consisting of two linear chain leads and a time-dependent interlead coupling that is switched on non-adiabatically. We derive a numerically exact expression for the particle current and examine its characteristics as it evolves in time from the transient regime to the long-time steady-state regime. We find that just after switch-on, the current initially overshoots the expected long-time steady-state value, oscillates and decays as a power law, and eventually settles to a steady-state value consistent with the value calculated using the Landauer formula. The power-law parameters depend on the values of the applied bias voltage, the strength of the couplings, and the speed of the switch-on. In particular, the oscillating transient current decays away longer for lower bias voltages. Furthermore, the power-law decay nature of the current suggests an equivalent series resistor-inductor-capacitor circuit wherein all of the components have time-dependent properties. Such dynamical resistive, inductive, and capacitive influences are generic in nano-circuits where dynamical switches are incorporated. We also examine the characteristics of the dynamical current in a nano-oscillator modeled by introducing a sinusoidally modulated interlead coupling between the two leads. We find that the current does not strictly follow the sinusoidal form of the coupling. In particular, the maximum current does not occur during times when the leads are exactly aligned. Instead, the times when the maximum current occurs depend on the values of the bias potential, nearest-neighbor coupling, and the interlead coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational studies on nanoelectromechanical switches based on bilayer graphene nanoribbons (BGNRs) with different designs are presented in this work. By varying the interlayer distance via electrostatic means, the conductance of the BGNR can be changed in order to achieve ON-states and OFF-states, thereby mimicking the function of a switch. Two actuator designs based on the modified capacitive parallel plate (CPP) model and the electrostatic repulsive force (ERF) model are discussed for different applications. Although the CPP design provides a simple electrostatic approach to changing the interlayer distance of the BGNR, their switching gate bias VTH strongly depends on the gate area, which poses a limitation on the size of the device. In addition, there exists a risk of device failure due to static fraction between the mobile and fixed electrodes. In contrast, the ERF design can circumvent both issues with a more complex structure. Finally, optimizations of the devices are carried out in order to provide insights into the design considerations of these nanoelectromechanical switches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermoelectric properties of silicon nanowires with different shapes, sizes, and orientations are theoretically investigated using sp3d5s* tight-binding model coupled with ballistic transport approach. We found that the thermoelectric properties significantly depend on nanowire geometry. Compared to [111] and [100] nanowires, n-doped and p-doped [110] nanowires show the worst performance in terms of power factor per cross-section area and figure of merit (ZT). As nanowire size decreases, thermoelectric properties of nanowires can be enhanced. As a result, triangular nanowires with side length of 1 nm have the best results of ZT and it can be enhanced to 1.5 and 0.85 for an n-type nanowire along [111] orientation and a p-type nanowire along [100] orientation, respectively. For extremely narrow nanowires, thermoelectric properties are only dependent on the number of the transmission modes instead of material properties such as carrier effective mass. Moreover, cross-section shape and thermal conductance contributed by electrons play important roles in ZT while their influence can be ignored for large size nanowires. Even though smaller size nanowires have better performance with the consideration of the single nanowire thermoelectric properties, they might be less efficient than larger diameter nanowires, as packing space is not very dense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility of using graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) as the material for resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) was investigated using a device simulator based on the nonequilibrium Green’s function with the π-orbital tight-binding approach. The double-barrier quantum well (DBQW) requirements of a RTD can be implemented by adjusting the width of a GNR to derive a negative differential resistance (NDR). The implementation of such a device is demonstrated in this paper and its mechanism was also found to be robust regardless of the eventual shape of the GNR patterned. Furthermore, the effects of the shape of the patterned GNR and the operating temperature on the performance of the device were explored by looking at the real space current flux of the device and the temperature dependency of the peak-valley ratio (PVR), respectively. Although the different shapes of GNR RTDs had a similar DBQW structure, their PVRs were different due to their conduction mechanisms which were dependent on the different geometrical shapes of each case. Lastly, the effect of thermal broadening, and width/length dependence of the central GNR between two barriers on the device performance, was further investigated in order to provide insights into the device physics of GNR RTDs for future study on performance optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A real-space quantum transport simulator for graphene nanoribbon (GNR) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) has been developed and used to examine the ballistic performance of GNR MOSFETs. This study focuses on the impact of quantum effects on these devices and on the effect of different type of contacts. We found that two-dimensional (2D) semi-infinite graphene contacts produce metal-induced-gap states (MIGS) in the GNR channel. These states enhance quantum tunneling, particularly in short channel devices, they cause Fermi level pinning and degrade the device performance in both the ON-state and OFF-state. Devices with infinitely long contacts having the same width as the channel do not indicate MIGS. Even without MIGS quantum tunneling effects such as band-to-band tunneling still play an important role in the device characteristics and dominate the OFF-state current. This is accurately captured in our nonequilibrium Greens’ function quantum simulations. We show that both narrow (1.4 nm width) and wider (1.8 nm width) GNRs with 12.5 nm channel length have the potential to outperform ultrascaled Si devices in terms of drive current capabilities and electrostatic control. Although their subthreshold swings under forward bias are better than in Si transistors, tunneling currents are important and prevent the achievement of the theoretical limit of 60 mV/dec. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]