Invited Paper NM+MS+NS+NC-WeM1
Excitronics: Excitonic Circuits for post-CMOS Electronics

Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 8:00 am, Room 309

In this talk, I will describe the properties of excitons in one-dimensional semiconductors that make them attractive as a post-CMOS state variable. The essential properties needed for any new state variable are: creation, transport and detection. These properties will be described for excitons created within single-walled carbon nanotube p-n diodes, one of the most fundamental of all electronic devices. The p-n diodes are formed along individual nanotubes and can show ideal diode behavior, the theoretical limit of performance for any diode. I will describe their dc, optical and the interplay between transport and optical properties. As an optical detector, these diodes are extremely sensitive and are able to probe the complete excited states of SWNTs, including the lowest exciton transition and the continuum. Based on these results, we extract properties that are meaningful for electronic applications, including exciton binding energy, transport, and optical cross section. This work was supported by the NRI/INDEX program and the University at Albany.