Graphene thermal flux transistor.

Insufficient flexibility of existing approaches to controlling the thermal transport in atomic monolayers limits their capability for use in many applications. Here, we examine the means of electrode doping to control the thermal flux Q due to phonons propagating along the atomic monolayer. We found that the frequency of the electron-restricted phonon scattering strongly depends on the concentration nC. of the electric charge carriers, established by the electric potentials applied to local gates. As a result of the electrode doping, nC is increased, causing a sharp rise in both the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, while the thermal conductivity tumbles. Therefore, the effect of the thermal transistor improves the figure of merit of nanoelectronic circuits.

Electronic Transport and Possible Superconductivity at Van Hove Singularities in Carbon Nanotubes.

Van Hove singularities (VHSs) are a hallmark of reduced dimensionality, leading to a divergent density of states in one and two dimensions and predictions of new electronic properties when the Fermi energy is close to these divergences. In carbon nanotubes, VHSs mark the onset of new subbands. They are elusive in standard electronic transport characterization measurements because they do not typically appear as notable features and therefore their effect on the nanotube conductance is largely unexplored. Here we report conductance measurements of carbon nanotubes where VHSs are clearly revealed by interference patterns of the electronic wave functions, showing both a sharp increase of quantum capacitance, and a sharp reduction of energy level spacing, consistent with an upsurge of density of states. At VHSs, we also measure an anomalous increase of conductance below a temperature of about 30 K. We argue that this transport feature is consistent with the formation of Cooper pairs in the nanotube.

Carbon nanotube quantum dots as highly sensitive terahertz-cooled spectrometers.

Terahertz technology has recently emerged as a highly sought-after and versatile scientific tool in many fields, including medical imaging, security screening, and wireless communication. However, scientific progress has been hindered by the lack of sources and detectors in this frequency range, thereby known as the terahertz gap. Here, we show that carbon nanotube quantum dots coupled to antennas are extremely sensitive, broad-band, terahertz quantum detectors with spectral resolution. Their response is due to photon-assisted single-electron tunneling and it is substantially enhanced by a novel radiation-induced nonequilibrium cooling of the electrons, causing a sharp height increase of the Coulomb oscillation peaks.

Resonant transport through a carbon nanotube junction exposed to an ac field.

The electron transport through a carbon nanotube (CNT) double barrier junction exposed to an external electromagnetic field is studied. The electron spectrum in the quantum well (QW) formed by the junction bears relativistic features. We examine how the ac field affects the level quantization versus the ac field parameters and chirality. We find that the transport through the junction changes dramatically versus the ac field frequency and amplitude. These changes are pronounced in the junction's differential conductance, which allows judgment about the role of relativistic effects in the CNT QW structures.

Directional photoelectric current across the bilayer graphene junction.

A directional photon-assisted resonant chiral tunneling through a bilayer graphene barrier is considered. An external electromagnetic field applied to the barrier switches the transparency T in the longitudinal direction from its steady state value T = 0 to the ideal T = 1 at no energy costs. The switch happens because the ac field affects the phase correlation between the electrons and holes inside the graphene barrier, changing the whole angular dependence of the chiral tunneling (directional photoelectric effect). The suggested phenomena can be implemented in relevant experiments and in various sub-millimeter and far-infrared optical electronic devices.

Enhancement of the supercurrent at a finite voltage in a sandwich-type ballistic SINIS junction.

A large, reentrant, Josephson current is observed in SINIS (Nb/Al/AlOx/Al/AlOx/Al/Nb) junctions at a finite voltage close to Delta/e (where Delta is the superconducting energy gap in S) and a bias current exceeding the zero-voltage Josephson current. The effect is studied using a multiterminal device configuration. A theoretical interpretation in terms of quantized electron states in the N layer is provided.