Electron transport in nanostructures: A key to high temperature superconductivity?

• Published in: Acta astronautica Vol. 67; no. 5; pp. 546 - 552
• Main Authors: Roeser, H.P., Haslam, D.T., Hetfleisch, F., López, J.S., von Schoenermark, M.F., Stepper, M., Huber, F.M., Nikoghosyan, A.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2010
• Subjects: Depletion; Diodes; Doping; Electron transport; Fermi surfaces; Gallium arsenide; Gallium arsenides; High temperature superconductor; Mathematical analysis; Nanostructure; Schottky barrier diode; Superconducting unit area; THz electronics; Nanostructure; Schottky barrier diode; Superconducting unit area; High temperature superconductor; THz electronics
• ISSN: 0094-5765; 1879-2030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2010.04.014

Nanostructured GaAs Schottky barrier diodes are used as low noise THz heterodyne detectors. Different diodes show that the electron transport is ballistic and given by an optimized depletion thickness D Depl which is shorter than the mean free path length. The best THz mixer noise temperature is achieved when the depletion thickness is twice the doping distance in GaAs with D Depl=2 x. There also is a linear relation between the depletion thickness and the carrier mobility μ by (2 x) 2≈ h/(2 e) μ. Since the mobility is proportional to 1/energy and because of many similarities when comparing with properties of high temperature superconductors (HTSC) it has been investigated if the doping distance x in HTSCs is connected with 1/( kT c). It turns out that there is also a strong correlation between x and the critical transition temperature T c given by (2 x) 2∼1/ T c. A detailed analysis and comparison suggest that the correlation equation for HTSCs is linked to the transition temperature T c, the density of states in a 1D quantum wire, the lowest energy E 1 in a 1D quantum well, and to the Fermi energy E F.