Researchers of Aalto University in Finland and the University of Marburg in Germany say they have detected a new kind of transport phenomenon for charges. In its work, the team said a pair formed by a negative electron and a positive charge – also known as an exciton – moves onto an interface, after which its 'message' is passed to the other side of the interface, where it is carried on by a similar pair.
The phenomenon is said to combine semiconductor and terahertz techniques and to allow a new kind of logical operation in microelectronics. Using the approach, the group believes that it will be possible to design new kinds of processors which function partly through optics and partly through electricity.
"An optical pulse functioning on a terahertz frequency brings information –or the so called correlation of the electron hole pair – from one side of the interface to the other, without any tunnelling of the exciton itself," said Professor Ilkka Tittonen from Aalto University. "No phenomenon that would be fully equivalent to this has been found previously in the field of modern physics."
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk