Negative differential resistance in a carbon nanotube-based molecular junction

By applying non-equilibrium Green's function formalism combined with first-principles density functional theory, we have investigated the electronic transport properties of a carbon nanotube-based molecular junction with different terminations (H-, C- and N-). The results show that the different terminations at the carbon nanotube ends strongly affect the transport properties of the junction. The current through the N-terminated carbon nanotube junction is significant larger than that through the H- and C-terminated junctions at low biases. Moreover, negative differential resistance behaviors can be observed in the N-terminated carbon nanotube junction, whereas not in the other two cases.     

Negative differential resistance in polymer molecular devices modulated with molecular length

We study the electronic transport properties of polymer molecular devices by applying first-principles method. The results show that the electronic transport properties depend on molecular length. Negative differential resistance can be observed and can be modulated with molecular length.     

Negative differential resistance in the unsymmetrical C121-based molecular junction

Using first-principles density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green?s function formalism for quantum transport calculation, we have investigated the electronic transport properties of the unsymmetrical C₁₂₁-based molecular junction. Our results show that the current-voltage curve displays a negative differential resistance phenomenon in a certain bias voltage range. The mechanism for the negative differential resistance phenomenon is suggested. The present findings could be helpful for the application of the C₁₂₁ molecule in the field of single molecular devices or nanometer electronics.     

Negative differential resistance behaviour in N-doped crossed graphene nanoribbons

By using first-principles calculations and nonequilibrium Green’s function technique, we study elastic transport properties of crossed graphene nanoribbons. The results show that the electronic transport properties of molecular junctions can be modulated by doped atoms. Negative differential resistance (NDR) behaviour can be observed in a certain bias region, when crossed graphene nanoribbons are doped with nitrogen atoms at the shoulder, but it cannot be observed for pristine crossed graphene nanoribbons at low biases. A mechanism for the negative differential resistance behaviour is suggested.     

Negative differential resistance and rectification effects in zigzag graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions: Induced by edge oxidation and symmetry concept

By applying non-equilibrium Green's functions (NEGF) in combination with tight-binding (TB) model, we investigate and compare the electronic transport properties of H-terminated zigzag graphene nanoribbon (H/ZGNR) and O-terminated ZGNR/H-terminated ZGNR (O/ZGNR–H/ZGNR) heterostructure under finite bias. Moreover, the effect of width and symmetry on the electronic transport properties of both models is also considered. The results reveal that asymmetric H/ZGNRs have linear I–V characteristics in whole bias range, but symmetric H-ZGNRs show negative differential resistance (NDR) behavior which is inversely proportional to the width of the H/ZGNR. It is also shown that the I–V characteristic of O/ZGNR–H/ZGNR heterostructure shows a rectification effect, whether the geometrical structure is symmetric or asymmetric. The fewer the number of zigzag chains, the bigger the rectification ratio. It should be mentioned that, the rectification ratios of symmetric heterostructures are much bigger than asymmetric one. Transmission spectrum, density of states (DOS), molecular projected self-consistent Hamiltonian (MPSH) and molecular eigenstates are analyzed subsequently to understand the electronic transport properties of these ZGNR devices. Our findings could be used in developing nanoscale rectifiers and NDR devices.     

Engineering of carbon-based superlight spin filter with negative differential resistance

Based on density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function, we investigate the edge hydrogenation and oxidation effects on the spin transport of devices consisting of a zigzag C₂N nanoribbon (ZC₂NNR) embedded in zigzag graphene nanoribbons in parallel (P) and antiparallel (AP) spin configurations. The results show that device with edge hydrogenation exhibits dual spin filtering effect in AP spin configuration and obvious negative differential resistance in both P and AP spin configuration. By substituting oxygen for hydrogen as passivation atoms of ZC₂NNR, the spin filtering efficiency is as high as 100% in the P spin configuration, and the negative differential resistance is largely enhanced with a peak to valley ratio in excess of 4×10³. Our theoretical studies suggest that zigzag C₂N nanoribbon modulated by edge substitution has great potential in the design of future multifunctional spin devices.     

Modulation of rectification and negative differential resistance in graphene nanoribbon by nitrogen doping

By applying the nonequilibrium Green?s function formalism combined with density functional theory, we have investigated the electronic transport properties of two nitrogen-doped armchair graphene nanoribbon-based junctions M1 and M2. In the left part of M1 and M2, nitrogen atoms are doped at two edges of the nanoribbon. In the right part, nitrogen atoms are doped at one edge and at the center for M1 and M2, respectively. Obvious rectifying and negative differential resistance behaviors are found, which are strongly dependent on the doping position. The maximum rectification and peak-to-valley ratios are up to the order of 10⁴ in M2.     

Carbon doping induced giant low bias negative differential resistance in boron nitride nanoribbon

By applying nonequilibrium Green's function combined with density functional theory, we investigated the electronic transport properties of carbon-doped armchair boron nitride nanoribbons. Obvious negative differential resistance (NDR) behavior with giant peak-to-valley ratio up to the order of ${10}^4\text{–}{10}^6$ is found by tuning the doping position and concentration. Especially, with the reduction of doping concentration, NDR peak position can enter into mV bias range and even can be expected lower than mV bias. The negative differential resistance behavior is explained by the evolution of the transmission spectra and band structures with applied bias.     

Low bias negative differential resistance with dual-peaks based on octacene molecular device

Based on non-equilibrium Green's function and density functional theory, a first-principles study of the transport properties of a molecular device is performed. This device is composed of two octacene molecules separated by a ethyl barrier, which are then linked to Ag leads through thiolates. The device shows low bias negative differential resistance effect with dual-peaks, which may be useful for designing molecular devices with low power-dissipation and multi-function in the future.     

Light-induced negative differential resistance effect in a resistive switching memory device

The negative differential resistance (NDR) effect was observed in a Pt/BiFeO₃/TiO₂/BiFeO₃/Pt memory cell by using light-illumination as extra stimulation. Further, the coexistence appearances and gradually becomes obvious when the device is exposed to light-illumination, which display an excellent stability and reversibility of the coexistence of NDR and resistive switching (RS) at room temperature. Through analysis of the physical conduction mechanism, it is expected that a large number of photo-generated charge carriers are induced under light-illumination on the surface and interface of the heterojunction is responsible for the appearance of this coexistence phenomenon. Importantly, the NDR effect is strengthened by the competition transfer of charge carrier in the polarized electric field under light-illumination. This work shows that the coexistence of light-modulated NDR and RS can deeply explore the potential applications of light-controlled multifunctional devices.     

Large negative differential resistance behavior in arsenene nanoribbons induced by vacant defects

We have studied the electronic structures of arsenene nanoribbons with different edge passivations by employing first-principle calculations. Furthermore, the effects of the defect in different positions on the transport properties of arsenene nanoribbons are also investigated. We find that the band structures of arsenene nanoribbons are sensitive to the edge passivation. The current-voltage characteristics of unpassivated and O-passivated zigzag arsenene nanoribbons exhibit a negative differential resistance behavior, while such a peculiar phenomenon has not emerged in the unpassivated and O-passivated armchair arsenene nanoribbons. The vacant defects on both top and bottom edges in unpassivated armchair arsenene nanoribbon can make its current-voltage characteristic also present a negative differential resistance behavior. After expanding the areas of the top and bottom defects in unpassivated armchair arsenene nanoribbon, the peak-to-valley ratio of the negative differential resistance behavior can be enlarged obviously, which opens another way for the application of arsenene-based devices with a high switching ratio.     

Physical mechanism of negative differential conductance in substrateless metallic carbon nanotubes

The existence of pronounced negative differential conductance at room temperature in suspended metallic carbon nanotubes was recently proven. We investigate here the physical nature of this phenomenon, which is of considerable importance for high-frequency devices, such as oscillators working up to few hundreds of GHz. Besides previous explanations, we find a new physical mechanism that explains the negative differential conductivity at room temperature. The entire suspended metallic carbon nanotube behaves as a very large quantum well, the negative differential conductance occurring due to the depletion of carriers on high-energy resonant levels.     

Large negative differential resistance in graphene nanoribbon superlattices

A graphene nanoribbon superlattice with a large negative differential resistance (NDR) is proposed. Our results show that the peak-to-valley ratio (PVR) of the graphene superlattices can reach 21 at room temperature with bias voltages between 90–220 mV, which is quite large compared with the one of traditional graphene-based devices. It is found that the NDR is strongly influenced by the thicknesses of the potential barrier. Therefore, the NDR effect can be optimized by designing a proper barrier thickness. The large NDR effect can be attributed to the splitting of the gap in transmission spectrum (segment of Wannier–Stark ladder) with larger thicknesses of barrier when the applied voltage increases.     

The effects of spin-filter and negative differential resistance on Fe-substituted zigzag graphene nanoribbons

Using the first-principle calculations, we investigate the spin-dependent transport properties of Fe-substituted zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs). The substituted ZGNRs with single or double Fe atoms, distributing symmetrically or asymmetrically on both edges, are considered. Our results show Fe-substitution can significantly change electronic transport of ZGNRs, and the spin-filter effect and negative differential resistance (NDR) can be observed. We propose that the distribution of the electronic spin-states of ZGNRs can be modulated by the substituted Fe and results in the spin-polarization, and meanwhile the change of the delocalization of the frontier molecular orbitals at different bias may be responsible for the NDR behavior.     

Negative differential thermal resistance in coupled rotor lattices

Contributions of homogeneous and Goldstone modes of the spin precession were distinguished in FMR spectra of Cr_1/3NbS₂ chiral helimagnet. The resonance field of homogeneous mode is determined by uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. The resonance field of Goldstone mode is determined by six-fold anisotropy in basal plane. For the first time, it has been shown experimentally that effective excitation of Goldstone mode is realized only when microwave magnetic field vector h is perpendicular to wave vector of magnetic structure Q.     

Negative differential conductance and effective electron mass in highly asymmetric ballistic bilayer graphene nanoribbon

We present a simplified theory of the effective momentum mass (EMM) and ballistic current-voltage relationship in a degenerate two-folded highly asymmetric bilayer graphene nanoribbon. With an increase in the gap, the density-of-states in the lower set of subbands increases more than that of the upper set. This results in a phenomenological population inversion of carriers, which is reflected through a net negative differential conductance (NDC). It is found that with the increase of the ribbon width, the NDC also increases. The population inversion also signatures negative values of EMM above a certain ribbon-width for the lower set of subbands, which increases in a step-like manner with the applied longitudinal static bias. The well-known result for symmetric conditions has been obtained as a special case.     

Observation of room temperature negative differential resistance in solution synthesized ZnO nanorod

We report the observation of negative differential resistance (NDR) in solution synthesized ZnO nanorod. The ZnO nanorod was fabricated as a two terminal planar device using lithographically patterned Au electrodes. The measured current–voltage response of the device has shown a negative differential resistance behavior. The peak-to-valley current ratio of the NDR is found to be greater than 4. The mechanism of this observed NDR effect has been explained based on charge trapping and de-trapping at the nanoscale contacts. It is the first observation of negative differential resistance effect in solution synthesized ZnO nanorod.     

Negative differential capacitance in n-GaN/p-Si heterojunctions

Negative differential capacitance (NDC) has been observed in n-GaN/p-Si heterojunctions grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). The NDC is observed at low frequencies 1 and 10 kilohertz (kHz) and disappeared at a higher testing frequency of 100 kHz. The NDC is also studied with temperature and found that it has disappeared above 323 ^°C. Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics of n-GaN /p-Si heterojunction were measured at different temperatures and are attributed to the space-charge-limited current (SCLC). A simple model involving two quantum states is proposed to explain the observed NDC behavior.     

Low-bias negative differential resistance in combined nanostructure of two zigzag-edged trigonal graphenes

Using the density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function method, we have investigated the electron transport properties of combined nanostructures of two zigzag-edged trigonal graphenes linked by their vertex carbon atoms bridged between two gold electrodes. The results show that obvious negative differential resistance behavior can be obtained at low bias (0.3 V) in such combined systems. The observed low-bias negative differential resistance behavior is analyzed by the bias-dependent transmission spectra, projected density of states, and voltage drop.