Direct observation and manipulation of hot electrons at room temperature

Abstract

In modern electronics and optoelectronics, hot electron behaviors are highly concerned, as they determine the performance limit of a device or system, like the associated thermal or power constraint of chips and the Shockley-Queisser limit for solar cell efficiency. To date, however, the manipulation of hot electrons has been mostly based on conceptual interpretations rather than a direct observation. The problem arises from a fundamental fact that energy-differential electrons are mixed up in real-space, making it hard to distinguish them from each other by standard measurements. Here we demonstrate a distinct approach to artificially (spatially) separate hot electrons from cold ones in semiconductor nanowire transistors, which thus offers a unique opportunity to observe and modulate electron occupied state, energy, mobility and even path. Such a process is accomplished through the scanning-photocurrent-microscopy measurements by activating the intervalley-scattering events and 1D charge-neutrality rule. Findings here may provide a new degree of freedom in manipulating non-equilibrium electrons for both electronic and optoelectronic applications.