Negative differential resistance in novel nanoscale devices

• Published in: Solid-state electronics Vol. 197; p. 108464
• Main Authors: Dragoman, Mircea, Dragoman, Daniela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2022
• Subjects: NDR
• ISSN: 0038-1101; 1879-2405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sse.2022.108464

•The manuscript is an overview of various physical effects which are producing negative-differential effects (NDR) effects in nanoscale devices.•The quantum tunneling, the ballistic transport in nanostructures and insulator –metal-transition (IMT) are producing a series of nanoscale devices for high frequency devices, or new computation methods such as reversible computation, quantum computation and neuromorphic computing. This three quantum phenomena are the pillars of this manuscript.•THz sources based on heterostructures, NDR in graphene ballistic devices, Bloch oscillations in graphene/hBN devices and neuromorphic devices based on IMT are analyzed.•Perspectives are written especially to indicate the trends in NDR devices in the future. Negative differential resistance (NDR) is a physical effect, which is widespread in quantum electronics from tunneling diodes up to memristors. Although NDR has been discovered many decades ago, there are still hundreds of papers published in the last years dealing with this effect. Since many quantum devices are nowadays fabricated at atomic scale, the NDR effect opens new applications. This manuscript is an overview of various physical phenomena, which produce NDR effects in nanoscale devices. These phenomena include quantum tunneling, the ballistic electronic transport in nanostructures and insulator–metal transitions, which are common in nanoscale devices for high-frequency applications or for new computing architectures, such as reversible computation, quantum computation and neuromorphic computing.