Energy-filtered cold electron transport at room temperature

Abstract

Fermi-Dirac electron thermal excitation is an intrinsic phenomenon that limits functionality of various electron systems. Efforts to manipulate electron thermal excitation have been successful when the entire system is cooled to cryogenic temperatures, typically <1K. Here we show that electron thermal excitation can be effectively suppressed at room temperature, and energy-suppressed electrons, whose energy distribution corresponds to an effective electron temperature of ∼45K, can be transported throughout device components without external cooling. This is accomplished using a discrete level of a quantum well, which filters out thermally excited electrons and permits only energy-suppressed electrons to participate in electron transport. The quantum well (∼2nm of Cr2O3) is formed between source (Cr) and tunnelling barrier (SiO2) in a double-barrier-tunnelling-junction structure having a quantum dot as the central island. Cold electron transport is detected from extremely narrow differential conductance peaks in electron tunnelling through CdSe quantum dots, with full widths at half maximum of only ∼15mV at room temperature.