A Possible Minimum Toy Model with Negative Differential Capacitance for Self-sustained Current Oscillation

We generalize a simple model for superlattices to include the effect of differential capacitance. It is shown that the model always has a stable steady-state solution （SSS） if all differential capacitances are positive. On the other hand, when negative differential capacitance is included, the model can have no stable SSS and be in a self-sustained current oscillation behavior. Therefore, we find a possible minimum toy model with both negative differential resistance and negative differential capacitance which can include the phenomena of both self-sustained current oscillation and I-V oscillation of stable SSSs.

Current Oscillation and dc-Voltage-Controlled Chaotic Dynamics in Semiconductor Superlattices

We report a detailed theoretical study of current oscillation and de-voltage-controlled chaotic dynamics in doped GaAs/AlAs resonant tunneling superlattices under crossed electric and magnetic fields. When the superlattice is biased at the negative differential velocity region, current self-oscillation is observed with proper doping concentration. The current oscillation mode and oscillation frequency can be affected by the dc voltage bias, doping density, and magnetic field. When an ac electric field with fixed amplitude and frequency is also applied to the system, different nonlinear properties show up in the external circuit with the change of dc voltage bias. We carefully study these nonlinear properties with different chaos-detecting methods.

Current Controlled Relaxation Oscillations in Ge_2Sb_2Te_5-Based Phase Change Memory Devices

The relaxation oscillation of the phase change memory （PCM） devices based on the Ge2Sb2Te5 material is investigated by applying square current pulses. The current pulses with different amplitudes could be accurately given by the independently designed current testing system. The relaxation oscillation across the PCM device could be measured using an oscilloscope. The oscillation duration decreases with time, showing an inner link with the shrinking threshold voltage Vth. However, the relaxation oscillation would not terminate until the remaining voltage Von reaches the holding voltage Vh. This demonstrates that the relaxation oscillation might be controlled by Von. The increasing current amplitudes could only quicken the oscillation velocity but not be able to eliminate it, which indicates that the relaxation oscillation might be an inherent behavior for the PCM cell.

Electrochemical Oscillations during Cathodic Polarization Process of Aluminum Covered with Talc Coating

Talc coatings were produced with chemical method on the surface of pure aluminum. The characteristics of cathodic polarization in a 3.5% NaCl solution have been studied through the observation of the 'current oscillations' phenomenon.

Bioinspired polydopamine coated nanopore nanofluidic unijunction transistor exhibiting negative differential resistance and ion current oscillation

Nanofluidic devices have turned out to be exemplary systems for investigating fluidic transport properties in a highly restricted area, where the electrostatic interactions or chemical reactions between nanochannel and flowing species strongly dominate the ions and flow transport. Numerous nanofluidic devices have recently been explored to manipulate ion currents and construct electronic devices. Enlightened by electronic field effect transistors, utilizing the electric field effect of nanopore nanochannels has also been adopted to develop versatile nanofluidic devices. Here, we report a nanopore-based nanofluidic unijunction transistor composed of a conical glass nanopipette with the biomaterial polydopamine (PDA) coated at its outer surface. The asfabricated nanofluidic device exhibited negative differential resistance (NDR) and ion current oscillation (ICO) in ionic transport. The pre-doped copper ions in the PDA moved toward the tip as increasing the potential, having a robust shielding effect on the charge of the tip, thus affecting the surface charge density of the nanopore in the working zone. Finite element simulation based on a continuum model coupled with Stokes-Brinkman and Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations revealed that the fluctuations in charge density remarkably affect the transport of ionic current in the nanofluidic device. The as-prepared nanofluidic semiconductor device was a ready-to-use equipment that required no additional external conditions. Our work provides a versatile and convenient way to construct nanofluidic electronic components;we believe by taking advantage of advanced surface modification methods, the oscillation frequency of the unijunction transistors could be controlled on demand, and more nanofluidic devices with resourceful functions would be exploited.

Electric-field-dependent charge delocalization from dopant atoms in silicon junctionless nanowire transistor

We study electric-field-dependent charge delocalization from dopant atoms in a silicon junctionless nanowire transistor by low-temperature electron transport measurement. The Arrhenius plot of the temperature-dependent conductance demonstrates the transport behaviors of variable-range hopping(below 30 K) and nearest-neighbor hopping(above 30 K).The activation energy for the charge delocalization gradually decreases due to the confinement potential of the conduction channel decreasing from the threshold voltage to the flatband voltage. With the increase of the source–drain bias, the activation energy increases in a temperature range from 30 K to 100 K at a fixed gate voltage, but decreases above the temperature of 100 K.

Quantum transport characteristics in single and multiple N-channel junctionless nanowire transistors at low temperatures

Single and multiple n-channel junctionless nanowire transistors （JNTs） are fabricated and experimentally investigated at variable temperatures. Clear current oscillations caused by the quantum-confinement effect are observed in the curve of drain current versus gate voltage acquired at low temperatures （10 K-100 K） and variable drain bias voltages （10 mV- 90 mV）. Transfer characteristics exhibit current oscillation peaks below flat-band voltage （VFB） at temperatures up to 75 K, which is possibly due to Coulomb-blocking from quantum dots, which are randomly formed by ionized dopants in the just opened n-type one-dimensional （1D） channel of silicon nanowires. However, at higher voltages than VFB, regular current steps are observed in single-channel JNTs, which corresponds to the fully populated subbands in the 1D channel. The subband energy spacing extracted from transconductance peaks accords well with theoretical predication. However, in multiple-channel JNT, only tiny oscillation peaks of the drain current are observed due to the combination of the drain current from multiple channels with quantum-confinement effects.

A Study of the Relation between Current Oscillations and Pitting

Anodic polarization behaviors of iron in pure H 2SO 4 and three mixed acidic solutions, H 2SO 4+NaCl, H 2SO 4+NaNO 3 and H 2SO 4+NaCl+NaNO 3, were investigated. The potentiodynamic sweep curves showed that the current densities rose and dropped irregularly in H 2SO 4+NaCl solution at the more anodic potentials since the iron surface suffered pitting attack in the solution, but the pitting corrosion was inhibited effectively in the presence of nitrate ions. The surface morphological measurements indicated that pits appeared on the iron surface in H 2SO 4+NaCl solution and only a few unobvious corrosion spots were observed in H 2SO 4+NaCl+NaNO 3 solution after the iron electrode was potentiostatically polarized at 1 3 V. The oscillatory properties of iron are associated with the susceptibility of the iron to pitting. In H 2SO 4+NaCl solution, the regular potentiostatic current oscillations gradually evolved into the irregular current fluctuations due to occurrence of the pitting; whereas in H 2SO 4+NaCl+NaNO 3 solution, the current oscillations took place regularly, like the oscillatory behavior in the pure H 2SO 4 solution. Thus, when the higher the oscillatory frequency, the more irregular oscillatory process and the more sensitive to pitting iron occurred.

Josephson Effect in FS/I/N/I/FS Tunnel Junctions

The Bogoliubov de Gennes equation is applied to the study of coherence effects in the ferromagnetic superconductor/insulator/normal metal/insulator/ferromagnetic/superconductor （FS/I/N/I/FS） junction. We calculated the Josephson current in FS/I/N/I/FS as a function of exchange field in ferromagnetic superconductor, temperature, and normal metal thickness. It is found that the Josephson critical current in FS/I/N/I/FS exhibits oscillations as a function of the length of normal metal. The exchange field always suppresses the Josephson critical current Ip for a parallel configuration of the magnetic moments of two ferromagnetic superconductor （FS） electrodes. In the antiparallel configuration, the Josephson critical current IAv at the minimum values of oscillation increases with the exchange field for strong barrier strength and at low temperatures.

Coherence effects in S/I/N/I/FS tunnel junctions

The dc Josephson effect in superconductor / insulator / normal metal / insulator/ferromagnetic superconductor junctions has been studied. We calculate the de Josephson current based on the Bogoliubov de Gennes equation. The Josephson current is derived as a function of exchange field in ferromagnetic superconductor, normal metal thickness and insulating barrier strength. It is found that there exists an oscillation relation between the critical Josephson current and the normal metal thickness. The oscillation amplitude decreases as the thickness of the normal metal increases or the exchange field augments.

Dependence of electron dynamics on magnetic fields in semiconductor superlattices

Numerical simulation results are presented for a drift-diffusion rate equation model which describes electronic transport due to sequential tunneling between adjacent quantum wells in weakly coupled semiconductor superlattices （SLs）. The electron dynamics is dependent on the external magnetic field perpendicular to the electron motion direction, and a detailed explanation is given. Using different parameters, the system shows different dynamic behaviors, and three distinct phenomena are observed and controlled by increasing magnetic field. （i） For a lower doping density, the system state transfers from stable state to oscillationary state. （ii） An opposite result is obtained to that in the case （i） for an intermediate value of the doping density, and the state changes from oscillationary to stationary. （iii） The state varies between oscillationary and stationary when doping density is large. Then, a detailed theoretical analysis is given to explain these surprise phenomena. The distribution of the electric-field domain along the SLs is plotted. We find the structure of the domain is almost uniform for a lower doping density, and no domain occurs in the SLs. By adding an external ac signal, complex nonlinear behaviors are observed from the Poincaré map and the corresponding phase diagrams when the driving frequency changes.

Chaotic dynamics dependence on doping density in weakly coupled GaAs/AlAs superlattices

A discrete sequential tunneling model is used for studying the influence of the doping density on the dynamical behaviors in weakly coupled GaAs/AlAs superlattices. Driven by the DC bias, the system exhibits self- sustained current oscillations induced by the period motion of the unstable electric field domain, and an electrical hysteresis in the loop of current density voltage curve is deduced. It is found that the hysteresis range strongly depends on the doping density, and the width of the hysteresis loop increases with increasing the doping density. By adding an external driving ac voltage, more complicated nonlinear behaviors are observed including quasi- periodicity, period-3, and the route of an inverse period-doubling to chaos when the driving frequency changes.