Observation of hopping transitions for delocalized electrons by temperature-dependent conductance in silicon junctionless nanowire transistors**Project supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0200503) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61327813).

Abstract

We demonstrate transitions of hopping behaviors for delocalized electrons through the discrete dopant-induced quantum dots in n-doped silicon junctionless nanowire transistors by the temperature-dependent conductance characteristics. There are two obvious transition platforms within the critical temperature regimes for the experimental conductance data, which are extracted from the unified transfer characteristics for different temperatures at the gate voltage positions of the initial transconductance gm peak in Vg1 and valley in Vg2. The crossover temperatures of the electron hopping behaviors are analytically determined by the temperature-dependent conductance at the gate voltages Vg1 and Vg2. This finding provides essential evidence for the hopping electron behaviors under the influence of thermal activation and long-range Coulomb interaction.