THE INCLUSION OF A FINITE CAPTURE TIME IN NUMERICAL DEVICE SIMULATION Available to Purchase

A new quantum effect device which is capable of highly coherent electron emission is theoretically proposed and analysed. The new device works by using the potential induced accumulation layer at a heterointerface to produce dimensionally reduced electrons. These electrons tunnel through a heterobarrier ensuring that their energy is quantised in the direction of propagation. To avoid the problem of unquantised three dimensional electrons dominating the current the two dimensional electrons that tunnel through the barrier are replenished by electrons from two side contacts. A self‐consistent model is used to analyse the performance of the device and it is found that the new device performs very well, producing electrons with a very narrow energy spread in the direction of propagation. The current density/coherency combination is easily controlled by the applied bias and the device also offers the potential for ultra fast switching through the transition between coherent and incoherent states.