Resonant Light Emission from Graphene/Hexagonal Boron Nitride/Graphene Tunnel Junctions


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Date

2021-10-13

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

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Data

Abstract

Single-layer graphene has many remarkable properties but does not lend itself as a material for light-emitting devices as a result of its lack of a band gap. This limitation can be overcome by a controlled stacking of graphene layers. Exploiting the unique Dirac cone band structure of graphene, we demonstrate twist-controlled resonant light emission from graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)/graphene tunnel junctions. We observe light emission irrespective of the crystallographic alignment between the graphene electrodes. Nearly aligned devices exhibit pronounced resonant features in both optical and electrical characteristics that vanish rapidly for twist angles θ ≳3°. These experimental findings can be well-explained by a theoretical model in which the spectral photon emission peak is attributed to photon-assisted momentum conserving electron tunneling. The resonant peak in our aligned devices can be spectrally tuned within the near-infrared range by over 0.2 eV, making graphene/h-BN/graphene tunnel junctions potential candidates for on-chip optoelectronics.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Journal / series

Volume

21 (19)

Pages / Article No.

8332 - 8339

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

graphene tunneling device; field-effect tunneling transistor; inelastic electron tunneling; photon-assisted tunneling

Organisational unit

03944 - Novotny, Lukas / Novotny, Lukas check_circle
02205 - FIRST-Lab / FIRST Center for Micro- and Nanoscience check_circle

Notes

Funding

192362 - Antenna-coupled Optoelectronics (SNF)

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