Nanoelectronic Devices from Nanowire Heterostructures

Abstract

In this manuscript we report the formation of single crystal PtSi and MnSi nanowires, silicide/silicon/silicide nanowire (NW) heterostructures and studies of the electron and spin transport in silicon nanostructure. Single crystal silicide contact is grown by converting the silicon nanowire into single crystal silicide nanowire through controlled solid state reaction, wherein a coherently and automatically flat silicide/Si interface is maintained. Electrical transport studies of PtSi and MnSi nanowires show a metallic behavior for both, and show that MnSi displays ferromagnetic properties at low temperature. More importantly, a high performance intrinsic-Si NW transistor has been demonstrated with PtSi/Si/PtSi heterostructures, and spin injection and detection are demonstrated in MnSi/Si/MnSi nanowire heterostructure with an ultra-short Si channel ~20 nm. These studies demonstrate for the first time the realization of normally-off intrinsic Si p-type transistor, as well the spin injection and detection in a Si nanostructure.