Tunneling

Spectroscopy in
Nanostructures
James Edward Hernandez II
PS 162

Motivation
Growing demand in more
efficient semiconductors

Very recent!

Used single walled CNT

Faster current flow through
the contacts

Tunneling Spectroscopy: Introduction

Obtaining the density of electrons as a function of energy
Theory: Difference in the Hamiltonian between sample and tip
Experiment: Obtaining the Fermi function f(E)
Determines the scattering of the quasiparticles
Obtains the density of states via conductance

Fig. 1. Tunneling Matrix element. : wave function of

the sample (tip), are scaling factors
Chen, Theory of Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy. http://www.columbia.edu/~jcc2161/documents/ChenJVST88.pdf

Non-equilibrium Tunneling Spectroscopy

in Carbon Nanotubes

Used SWNT treated as 1D species

Chen, Y. Nonequilibrium Tunneling Spectroscopy in Carbon Nanotubes. DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.036804

V : bias voltage
Vac : excitation voltage
PbTe: superconductor
U : Applied DC voltage
I: current at the nanotube contacts

Non-equilibrium Tunneling Spectroscopy

in Carbon Nanotubes
Conductance determines the coupling
between the CNT and the contacts
Conductance determines the density of
states
Peaks determine superconducting peaks
Determines superconductivity of the
material
Tunneling spectroscopy allows for better
characterization of e-e scattering

Other papers: Quantum Wires

Used GaAs-AlGaAs
quantum well
Applying a magnetic field
approaches the expected
conductance values
The 0.7 feature appears
from the voltage conditions
Contribution of electron spin in
the Conductance
Spintronics!?
Ramamoorthy, Tunneling spectroscopy of a ballistic quantum wire. DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.78.035335
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-8984/20/16/160301/pdf