2016/01/18 by Jason K. Marmon, Satish C. Rai, C. S. Satish +3 · 21 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design #Computer science #Electrical engineering #Electronic engineering #Electronics #Engineering #Field-effect transistor #Logic gate #Materials science #Nanowire Synthesis and Applications #Optical computing #Optical switch #Optical transistor #Optics #Optoelectronics #Physics #Semiconductor materials and devices #Transistor #Voltage #cond-mat.mes-hall #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/fphy.2016.00008
published in Frontiers in Physics 4 (Frontiers Media) · 25 pages with 5 figures (SI: 12 pages with 4 figures)
arxiv created 2016/01/18 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/21 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv updated 2020/06/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Modern electronics are developing electronic-optical integrated circuits, while their electronic backbone, e.g. field-effect transistors (FETs), remains the same. However, further FET down scaling is facing physical and technical challenges. A light-effect transistor (LET) offers electronic-optical hybridization at the component level, which can continue Moore’s law to quantum region without requiring a FET’s fabrication complexity, e.g. physical gate and doping, by employing optical gating and photoconductivity. Multiple independent gates are therefore readily realized to achieve unique functionalities without increasing chip space. Here we report LET device characteristics and novel digital and analog applications, such as optical logic gates and optical amplification. Prototype CdSe-nanowire-based LETs show output and transfer characteristics resembling advanced FETs, e.g. on/off ratios up to ~1.0x106 with a source-drain voltage of ~1.43 V, gate-power of ~260 nW, and subthreshold swing of ~0.3 nW/decade (excluding losses). Our work offers new electronic-optical integration strategies and electronic and optical computing approaches.