Nanoelectronics

Bhaskaran Muralidharan
Department of EE, IITB
05/01/2018
 Logistics

Quizzes and Assignments --- 20 %

Mid-semester exam ---- 25%
Attendance and class participation --- 5 %
End-semester exam (comprehensive) --- 50 %
 Calendar for Year 2018 (India)

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September October November December

S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S

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1 Jan New Year's Day 13 Feb Maha Shivaratri/Shivaratri 1 Apr Easter Day 15 Jun Ramzan Id/Eid-ul-Fitar
5 Jan Guru Govind Singh Jayanti 19 Feb Shivaji Jayanti 1 Apr Hazarat Ali's Birthday 14 Jul Rath Yatra
14 Jan Makar Sankranti 1 Mar Holika Dahana 14 Apr Vaisakhi 15 Aug Independence Day
14 Jan Pongal 2 Mar Holi 14 Apr Ambedkar Jayanti 17 Aug Parsi New Year
22 Jan Vasant Panchami 18 Mar Chaitra Sukhladi 15 Apr Mesadi/Vaisakhadi 22 Aug Bakr Id/Eid ul-Adha
26 Jan Republic Day 25 Mar Rama Navami 30 Apr Buddha Purnima/Vesak 25 Aug Onam
31 Jan Guru Ravidas Jayanti 29 Mar Mahavir Jayanti 9 May Birthday of Ravindranath 26 Aug Raksha Bandhan (Rakhi)
10 Feb Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati Jayanti 30 Mar Good Friday 15 Jun Jamat Ul-Vida 3 Sep Janmashtami
The Building block of digital age
Nanoelectronics

S D
How far can we scale transistors?

New physics emerges

at these lengthscales
 Modeling device electronics
~ 1023 atoms Bulk Solid (“macro”) EE 620
(Classical (“Traditional Engg”)
Source Drain
Drift-Diffusion)
Channel
Bottom Gate

80s ~ 106 atoms

Clusters (“meso”)
(Semiclassical
Boltzmann
Transport)

Today ~ 10-100 atoms

Molecules (“nano”)
ECE 724
(Quantum
(“Nano Engg”)
Transport)
 Emerging Electronics Landscape
Charge is only the beginning!

CHARGE Spin

Energy
 Nanoelectronics:
New Paradigms and Possibilities

11
Part 1: Key concepts and semiclassical transport:

•Elastic resistor model, basic concepts of current

flow, role of contacts, ballistic transport basics

•Bottom up view point, Landauer approach,

connection with diffusive transport,
Concepts regarding conductivity

•Role of electrostatics, case of nano transistor,

drift-diffusion, Boltzmann transport formalism
Bottom up view point of transport

Drift Diffusion

Quasi-Ballistic/Ballistic

Quantum theory

∞
I= ∫ dEΞ( E )( f
−∞
S ( E ) − f D ( E ))
 “Top Down” … (EE 620/normal way of thinking)

Solid State Electronics/ Molecular Electronics

Mesoscopic Physics

Vd
20 µm
2 nm

Vd
 Top Down fabrication

Photolithography
Top down architecture
“Al-Khazneh”, Petra, Jordan
(6th century BC)
 Anatomy of Nano-Devices

Channel
µ1 µ2
e- e-
µ0

Contacts/Leads
Source/Drain electrodes
Dynamics+ Dissipation
 “Bottom Up” ... (EE 724)

Solid State Electronics/ Molecular Electronics

Mesoscopic Physics

Vd
20 µm
2 nm

Vd
 Bottom Up fabrication

Build pyramidal quantum dots from InAs atoms

(Gerhard Klimeck, Purdue)

Bottom up architecture
Chepren Pyramid, Giza (2530 BC)

Full quantum theory of nanodevices

• Carbon nanotubes, Graphene

• Atomic wires, nanowires,
• Point contacts, quantum dots,
• thermoelectrics,
• molecular electronics
• Single electron Transistors (SETs)
• Spintronics
 Bottom up view point of transport

Macroscopic
0.1 mm
dimensions
Diffusive
10 µm
Ξ( E )→D( E )v 2 ( E )τ ( E ) / L2
1µm

0.1 µm
Ξ( E )→D( E )v( E ) / 2 L≡M ( E ) / h
10 nm
Quantum theory
1 nm
Atomic Ξ( E )→D( E )γ ( E ) / 2!
0.1 nm dimensions
γ /h

D(E) qV
µ1, T1 µ2 , T2
€
Anatomy of Nano-Devices: Point to Point

Channel
µ1 µ2
e- e-
µ0

Contacts/Leads
Source/Drain electrodes
Dynamics+ Dissipation
How far can we scale transistors?
What Next???

New physics emerges

at these lengthscales
 A possible evolution path?

2 nm

5 nm Silicon Nanowires
(Low µ < 100 cm2/Vs) Organic Molecules ?
(Reproducibility/
Gateability)
S D
O R
U A
R I
C N
E INSULATOR Source Top Gate Drain

VG VD
Channel
I Bottom Gate

CNTs (µ ~ 10,000cm2/Vs) Strained Si, SiGe

Hard to align into a circuit! (µ ~ 270cm2/Vs)

< 10 nm 15 nm
 Part 2: Quantum transport:
•Schoedinger equation, Hamiltonian, density of states, basic
semiconductor physics from quantum mechanical viewpoint

•Examples of equilibrium calculations: concept of band structure, quantum

wells, nanowires, carbon nanotubes, graphene, electrostatics, quantum
capacitance

•Non-equilibrium transport: elastic resistor model re-visited from quantum

transport perspective, introducing “contacts” to the Schroedinger
equation, Green’s functions, self-energy, Non-equilibrium Green’s function
(NEGF) formalism

•Application of the NEGF formalism to concrete examples: a) molecular

electronics, b) nanowire transport, c) resonant tunnelling diodes
Nanoscale Devices: DOS determines everything!

γ /!
D(E) qV
µ1, T1 µ2 , T2
∞
I= ( E )( f
∫ dEΞ€ S ( E ) − f D ( E ))
€ −∞

Transport Driving Force

Function
qVDS = µ S − µ D
I

V
 Quantum Transport: DOS is the main thing!

γ /h

D(E) qV
µ1, T1 µ2 , T2
€

€ €

S D
S D

Effective mass Tight Binding Semi-empirical

+ + /Ab initio
Poisson Equation Poisson Equation
 The material ‘zoo’ !!

2 nm

5 nm Silicon Nanowires
(Low µ < 100 cm2/Vs) Organic Molecules ?
(Reproducibility/
Gateability)
S D
O R
U A
R I
C N
E INSULATOR Source Top Gate Drain

VG VD
Channel
I Bottom Gate

CNTs (µ ~ 10,000cm2/Vs) Strained Si, SiGe

Hard to align into a circuit! (µ ~ 270cm2/Vs)

< 10 nm 15 nm
 Line Edge Roughness in GNR Tunneling FETs
Objectives:
•Simulation of Graphene Nanoribbon band-to-
band tunneling FETs
•Study the influence of Line Edge Roughness
(LER) on their performances
Approach:
•Non-equilibrium quantum transport with on
single orbital per carbon atom
•Atomistic description of the graphene ribbon
•Edge atoms randomly removed with a given
probability P
•Statistical sampling of LER (100 random samples
per roughness probability)
Results and Impacts:
•LER causes drastic increase of OFF-current and
decrease of ON/OFF ratio (band gap states)
•Help experimentalists design better devices,
less sensitive to LER

Image Caption
Up: Single-gate graphene nanoribbon tunneling transistor and sample
of a graphene nanoribbon with random LER

Down: Transfer characteristics Id-V gs of graphene nanoribbon

tunneling FETs with different LER probabilities. Each curve represents
the average of 100 different samples
 Molecular Electronics
Aviram-Ratner Diode: an acceptor-bridge-donor molecule
Chem.Phys.Lett. (1974) 29, 277.

A molecular rectifier

1. Electrode charge-injection to donor

2. Donor-Acceptor ET
3. Acceptor-electrode charge-injection
32
Single Molecule Electronics
Self-assembled molecular junctions
AFM conductive tip

Insertion of a
dithiolated molecule in
an alkanethiol SAM.

Cui et al., Science 294 571 (2001)

 I/V curves

Xu and Tao, Science 301 1221 (2003)

The series of current-voltage curves correspond to integer number of molecules

trapped in the gap.
 Quantum Transport

γ /h

D(E) qV
µ1, T1 µ2 , T2
€

€ €

S D
S D

Effective mass Tight Binding Semi-empirical

+ + /Ab initio
Poisson Equation Poisson Equation
 Part III: Spintronics

CHARGE Spin

Energy
 Part 3: Spintronics
• Introduction to spin, concept of spinors and vectors,
connection with light polarization, overview of
spintronic devices

• Magnetoresistance phenomena, modelling spin valve

and MTJ devices, spin injection and spin transistor

• Spin transfer torque, emerging and exploratory

spintronic devices, NEGF formalism for spintronic
device modelling

• Quantum information and computing with spins

 SPINTRONICS

Charge + SPIN degree of freedom

Spintronics
Brief History
 BUILDING BLOCKS
BUILDING BLOCKS

SV/MTJ DW NLSV QD

ULTRAFAST MAGNETIZATION
DYNAMICS

SPINTRONIC INTERONNECTS

LOGIC MEMORY
Nanomagnetic logic
• Energy-efficient
• Non-volatile
• Fast
• Radiation resistant
GMR technology
MRAM: Reading/writing process
Spin transfer torque (STT)
STT MRAM

Spin Torque Transfer

• No applied magnetic field

• Utilizes heavily spin
polarized current
• The magnetization of nano-
elements is flipped back and
forth
• Still has challenges in basic
physics and materials to
overcome
 BUILDING BLOCKS

MTJ DW NLSV QD

ULTRAFAST MAGNETIZATION
DYNAMICS

SPINTRONIC INTERONNECTS

LOGIC MEMORY
Quantum Information and Computing
Spin based technologies
Silicon Spin Qubits
 Part IV: Charge + Energy

CHARGE Spin

Energy
 Part 3: Energy transport:
•Introduction to nanoscale energy conversion devices, basics of
thermoelectrics and photovoltaics

•Thermoelectric transport, energy conversion efficiency, low dimensional

thermoelectrics

•Energy, entropy and heat currents, connection with second law

 Nanocaloritronics
Energy Conversion at nanoscale!

Batteries, Fuel cells and Nano-heat engines

Electronic Maxwell’s demon

 Battery Operation Schematic
Active Region

µ0

Electrodes

work
µ1 µ2

O2 fuel H2O
H2 cell

heat
Battery Operation Basics
Electrolysis (Chemistry)
 Battery Operation Basics
Electrolysis (Chemistry)

The familiar process of electrolysis requires work to proceed, if the

process is put in reverse, it should be able to do work for us
spontaneously.

The most basic “black box” representation of a fuel cell in action is

shown below: work

OFigure
2
2

fuel H2O
H2
cell

heat
 Battery Operation Basics
Fuel cells: Putting all together!

Figure 3
 Battery Operation Basics
Some types!

Figure 3

What is the connection with nanoelectronic devices?

RECALL: Anatomy of Nano-Devices

Channel
µ1 µ2
e- e-
µ0

Contacts/Leads
Source/Drain electrodes
Nanocaloritronics

Electronic Maxwell’s demon

 Part IV
Spin-charge-energy conversion!
Possible exploratory future!

CHARGE Spin

Energy
 Nanoscale Devices-The energy picture

N1 + N 2 = 0
E1 + E 2 = 0
E1 − µ1 N 1 E − µ2 N 2
+ 2 ≤0
T1 T2

Source Channel Drain

E1 − µ1 N1 E2 − µ 2 N 2
+ ≤0
E1 , N1 E2 , N2 T1 T2
− ΔS1 − ΔS 2 ≤ 0

E1 − µ1 N1 E2 − µ2 N2
 nano-device “demons”+ info battery

N1 + N 2 = 0
E1 + E2 + E0 = 0
E1 − µ1 N1 E2 − µ 2 N 2
+ − ΔS 0 ≤ 0
T1 T2

ΔStot ≥ 0
ΔF = ΔE − T ΔS ≤ 0 v/s

ENERGY INFORMATION
 nano-device “demons”+ info battery
µ1 µ2

Si = 0
S f = Nk ln 2
ΔS = Nk ln 2
ΔW ≤ NkT ln 2

Si = 0
S f = Nk ln 2
Current Stops to flow eventually!
ΔS = Nk ln 2
Where does the energy come from?!
State of the Demons
May help solve fundamental issues related to
computing in general!
Landauer principle

Discharging Randomizing
the bit

charging Erasure
ΔS = Nk ln 2
ΔW ≤ NkT ln 2
EErase ≥ NkT ln 2
 Modeling device electronics
~ 1023 atoms Bulk Solid (“macro”) EE 620
(Classical (“Traditional Engg”)
Source Drain
Drift-Diffusion)
Channel
Bottom Gate

80s ~ 106 atoms

Clusters (“meso”)
(Semiclassical
Boltzmann
Transport)

Today ~ 10-100 atoms

Molecules (“nano”)
ECE 724
(Quantum
(“Nano Engg”)
Transport)
 Bottom up view point of transport

Macroscopic
0.1 mm
dimensions
Diffusive
10 µm
Ξ( E )→D( E )v 2 ( E )τ ( E ) / L2
1µm

0.1 µm
Ξ( E )→D( E )v( E ) / 2 L≡M ( E ) / h
10 nm
Quantum theory
1 nm
Atomic Ξ( E )→D( E )γ ( E ) / 2!
0.1 nm dimensions
γ /h

D(E) qV
µ1, T1 µ2 , T2
€
Making sure you understand the material !!!