Spontaneous current generation in gated nanostructures

¹ School of Physics, University of Exeter - Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK
² Department of Physics, University of Oslo - PO Box 1048 Blindern 0316 Oslo, Norway
³ A. F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia
⁴ Argonne National Laboratory - 9700 S. Cass av., Argonne, IL 60439, USA
⁵ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge - Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

Received: 11 March 2005
Accepted: 16 June 2005

Abstract

We have observed an unusual dc current spontaneously generated in the conducting channel of a short-gated transistor. The magnitude and direction of this current critically depend upon the voltage applied to the gate. We propose that it is initiated by the injection of hot electrons from the gate that relax via phonon emission. The phonons then excite secondary electrons from asymmetrically distributed impurities in the channel, which leads to the observed current.