Abstract
Sufficiently large electric current applied to metallic nanostructures can bring them far out-of-equilibrium, resulting in non-Ohmic behaviors characterized by current-dependent resistance. We experimentally demonstrate a linear dependence of resistance on current in microscopic thin-film metallic wires at cryogenic temperatures, and show that our results are inconsistent with common non-Ohmic mechanisms such as Joule heating. As the temperature is increased, the linear dependence becomes smoothed out, resulting in the crossover to behaviors consistent with Joule heating. A plausible explanation for the observed behaviors is the strongly non-equilibrium distribution of phonons generated by the current. Analysis based on this interpretation suggests that the observed anomalous current-dependent resistance can provide information about phonon transport and electron-phonon interaction at nanoscale. The ability to control the properties of phonons generated by current can lead to new routes for the optimization of thermal properties of electronic nanodevices.
Highlights
Downscaling of modern electronic devices and circuits places ever-increasing demands on their operation under increasingly nonequilibrium conditions
The non-Ohmic behaviors at large bias are manifested by the phenomenon of current saturation, which is associated with the onset of spontaneous emission of optical phonons [3]
We show that the observed anomalous behaviors can provide insight into the nonequilibrium electron and phonon dynamics at nanoscale, lead to new approaches to the characterization of electron-phonon interaction, and facilitate the optimization of thermal management in electronic nanodevices
Summary
Downscaling of modern electronic devices and circuits places ever-increasing demands on their operation under increasingly nonequilibrium conditions. We hypothesize that the observed anomalous low-temperature dependence RðIÞ is associated with electron scattering on nonequilibrium phonons generated by current, whose distribution and population are qualitatively different from that expected from the Joule heating picture.
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