TY - JOUR

T1 - The piezoelectric gating effect in a thin bent membrane with a two-dimensional electron gas

AU - Shevyrin, Andrey A.

AU - Pogosov, Arthur G.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.

PY - 2018/4/13

Y1 - 2018/4/13

N2 - Thin suspended nanostructures with a two-dimensional electron gas can be used as nanoelectromechanical systems in which electron transport is piezoelectrically coupled to mechanical motion and vibrations. Apart from practical applications, these systems are interesting for studying electron transport under unusual conditions, namely, in the presence of additional mechanical degrees of freedom. In the present paper, we analyze the influence of the bending on the density of a gated two-dimensional electron gas contained in a suspended membrane using the Thomas-Fermi approach and the model of pure electrostatic screening. We show that a small bending is analogous to a small change in gate voltages. Our calculations demonstrate that the density change is most prominent near the edges of the conductive channel created by negatively biased gates. When moving away from these edges, the bending-induced density change rapidly decays. We propose several methods to increase the magnitude of the effect, with the largest benefit obtained from coverage of the conductive channel with an additional grounded gate. It is shown that, for a conductive channel under a bare surface, the largest effect can be achieved if the two-dimensional electron gas is placed near the middle of the membrane thickness, despite the bending-induced strain is zero there.

AB - Thin suspended nanostructures with a two-dimensional electron gas can be used as nanoelectromechanical systems in which electron transport is piezoelectrically coupled to mechanical motion and vibrations. Apart from practical applications, these systems are interesting for studying electron transport under unusual conditions, namely, in the presence of additional mechanical degrees of freedom. In the present paper, we analyze the influence of the bending on the density of a gated two-dimensional electron gas contained in a suspended membrane using the Thomas-Fermi approach and the model of pure electrostatic screening. We show that a small bending is analogous to a small change in gate voltages. Our calculations demonstrate that the density change is most prominent near the edges of the conductive channel created by negatively biased gates. When moving away from these edges, the bending-induced density change rapidly decays. We propose several methods to increase the magnitude of the effect, with the largest benefit obtained from coverage of the conductive channel with an additional grounded gate. It is shown that, for a conductive channel under a bare surface, the largest effect can be achieved if the two-dimensional electron gas is placed near the middle of the membrane thickness, despite the bending-induced strain is zero there.

KW - nanoelectromechanical systems

KW - piezoelectric effect

KW - ThomasFermi approximation

KW - two-dimensional electron gas

KW - WIRES

KW - DEVICE

KW - Thomas-Fermi approximation

KW - GAAS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045576897&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1088/1361-648X/aab649

DO - 10.1088/1361-648X/aab649

M3 - Article

C2 - 29533223

AN - SCOPUS:85045576897

VL - 30

JO - Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

JF - Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

SN - 0953-8984

IS - 18

M1 - 184003

ER -