Field-effect control of tunneling barrier height by exploiting graphene's low density of states

Abstract

We exploit the low density of electronic states of graphene to modulate the tunnel current flowing perpendicular to the atomic layers of a multi-layer graphene-boron nitride device. This is achieved by using the electric field effect to raise the Fermi energy of the graphene emitter layer and thereby reduce the effective barrier height for tunneling electrons. We discuss how the electron charge density in the graphene layers and the properties of the boron nitride tunnel barrier determine the device characteristics under operating conditions and derive expressions for carrier tunneling in these highly anisotropic layered heterostructures.