Li Chuanping, Xu Chen, Cahen David, Jin Yongdong
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P.R. China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P.R. China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 4;9(1):18336. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54835-2.
Quantum tunneling is the basis of molecular electronics, but often its electron transport range is too short to overcome technical defects caused by downscaling of electronic devices, which limits the development of molecular-/nano-electronics. Marrying electronics with plasmonics may well present a revolutionary way to meet this challenge as it can manipulate electron flow with plasmonics at the nanoscale. Here we report on unusually efficient temperature-independent electron transport, with some photoconductivity, across a new type of junction with active plasmonics. The junction is made by assembly of SiO shell-insulated Au nanoparticles (Au@SiO NPs) into dense nanomembranes of a few Au@SiO layers thick and transport is measured across these membranes. We propose that the mechanism is plasmon-enabled transport, possibly tunneling (as it is temperature-independent). Unprecedentedly ultra-long-range transport across one, up to even three layers of Au@SiO in the junction, with a cumulative insulating (silica) gap up to 29 nm/NP layer was achieved, well beyond the measurable limit for normal quantum mechanical tunneling across insulators (~2.5 nm at 0.5-1 V). This finding opens up a new interdisciplinary field of exploration in nanoelectronics with wide potential impact on such areas as electronic information transfer.
量子隧穿是分子电子学的基础，但其电子传输范围往往过短，无法克服电子器件尺寸缩小所带来的技术缺陷，这限制了分子/纳米电子学的发展。将电子学与等离子体学相结合可能是应对这一挑战的革命性方法，因为它可以在纳米尺度上利用等离子体学来操控电子流。在此，我们报告了一种新型的具有活性等离子体学的结，在该结上实现了异常高效的与温度无关的电子传输，并伴有一定的光电导性。该结是通过将SiO壳层绝缘的金纳米颗粒（Au@SiO NPs）组装成几层厚的致密纳米膜制成的，并测量了穿过这些膜的传输。我们认为其机制是等离子体辅助传输，可能是隧穿（因为它与温度无关）。在该结中，实现了前所未有的超长程传输，跨越一层甚至三层Au@SiO，累积绝缘（二氧化硅）间隙高达每层纳米颗粒29纳米，远远超出了绝缘体正常量子力学隧穿的可测量极限（在0.5 - 1伏时约为2.5纳米）。这一发现开辟了纳米电子学中一个新的跨学科探索领域，对电子信息传输等领域具有广泛的潜在影响。
