Coulomb electron drag mechanism of terahertz plasma instability in n+-i-n-n+ graphene FETs with ballistic injection

Abstract

We predict the self-excitation of terahertz (THz) oscillations due to the plasma instability in the lateral n+-i-n-n+$ graphene field-effect transistors (G-FET). The instability is associated with the Coulomb drag of the quasi-equilibrium electrons in the gated channel by the injected ballistic electrons resulting in a positive feedback between the amplified dragged electrons current and the injected current. The plasma excitations arise when the drag effect is sufficiently strong. The drag efficiency and the plasma frequency are determined by the quasi-equilibrium electrons Fermi energy (i.e., by their density). The conditions of the terahertz plasma oscillation self-excitation can be realized in the G-FETs with realistic structural parameters at room temperature enabling the potential G-FET-based radiation sources for the THz applications.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Micrometer-scale ballistic transport in encapsulated graphene at room temperature
• Strong Coulomb drag and broken symmetry in double-layer graphene
• Tunnel field-effect transistors for sensitive terahertz detection
• Room Temperature Amplification of Terahertz Radiation by Grating-Gate Graphene Structures
• Plasmonic Instabilities in Two-dimensional Electron Channels of Variable Width
• Effect of Coulomb scattering on graphene conductivity
• S-shaped current-voltage characteristics of n+-i-n-n+ graphene field-effect transistors due the Coulomb drag of quasi-equilibrium electrons by ballistic electrons

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Effect of Coulomb carrier drag and terahertz plasma instability in p+-p-i-n-n+ graphene tunneling transistor structures
• Resonant plasmonic terahertz detection in gated graphene p-i-n field-effect structures enabled by the Zener-Klein tunneling nonlinearity
• Ballistic injection terahertz plasma instability in graphene n+-i-n-n+ field-effect transistors and lateral diodes
• Transit-time resonances enabling amplification and generation of terahertz radiation in periodic graphene p-i-n structures with the Zener-Klein interband tunneling