Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Department of Electrical Engineering, Mumbai, 4000076, India.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 9;8(1):128. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18346-2.
We propose a technologically feasible one-dimensional double barrier resonant tunneling diode (RTD) as electronic nose, inspired by the vibration theory of biological olfaction. The working principle is phonon-assisted inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS), modeled here using the Non-Equilibrium Green Function formalism for quantum transport. While standard IETS requires low-temperature operation to obviate the thermal broadening of spectroscopic peaks, we show that quantum confinement in the well of the RTD provides electron energy filtering in this case and could thereby allow room-temperature operation. We also find that the IETS peaks - corresponding to adsorbed foreign molecules - shift monotonically along the bias voltage coordinate with their vibrational energy, promising a selective sensor.
我们提出了一种基于生物嗅觉振动理论的一维双势垒共振隧穿二极管（RTD）电子鼻，其工作原理为声子辅助非平衡格林函数量子输运理论。虽然标准的 IETS 需要在低温下工作以避免光谱峰的热展宽，但我们表明，RTD 势阱中的量子限制在此情况下提供了电子能量过滤，从而可以实现室温操作。我们还发现，与吸附的外来分子相对应的 IETS 峰沿着偏置电压坐标单调移动，其振动能量也随之移动，有望成为一种选择性传感器。
