Issue 33, 2015

Contact effects and quantum interference in engineered dangling bond loops on silicon surfaces

Abstract

Dangling bond structures created on H-passivated silicon surfaces offer a novel platform for engineering planar nanoscale circuits, compatible with conventional semiconductor technologies. In this investigation we focus on the electronic structure and quantum transport signatures of dangling bond loops built on H-passivated Si(100) surfaces contacted by carbon nanoribbons, thus leading to a two-terminal planar, nanoscale setup. The computational studies were carried out to rationalize the influence of the local atomic-scale contacts of the dangling bond system to the mesoscopic electrodes as well as the possibility of revealing quantum interference effects in the dangling bond loops. Our results reveal a strong sensitivity of the low-energy quantum transmission to the loop topology and to the atomistic details of the electrode–loop contact. Varying the length of the loop or the spatial position of at least one of the electrodes has a drastic impact on the quantum interference pattern; depending on whether constructive or destructive interference within the loop takes place, the conductance of the system can be tuned over several orders of magnitude, thus suggesting the possibility of exploiting such quantum mechanical effects in the design of two-dimensional, atomic-scale electronic devices such as logic gates.

Graphical abstract: Contact effects and quantum interference in engineered dangling bond loops on silicon surfaces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Feb 2015
Accepted
06 Jul 2015
First published
10 Jul 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 13967-13973

Author version available

Contact effects and quantum interference in engineered dangling bond loops on silicon surfaces

A. Kleshchonok, R. Gutierrez and G. Cuniberti, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 13967 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR01251A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements