J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2015, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (6): 542-555.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2015.01.006

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InAs Nanowire Devices with Strong Gate Tunability: Fundamental Electron Transport Properties and Application Prospects: A Review

Dong Liang1, 3, Juan Du2, Xuan P.A. Gao1, *   

  1. 1 Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States; 2 Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
  • Received:2014-09-28 Online:2015-06-20 Published:2015-07-23
  • Contact: *Corresponding author. Prof., Ph.D.; Tel.: +1 2163684031. E-mail address: xuan.gao@case.edu (X.P.A. Gao). 3Current address: Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, United States.
  • Supported by:
    The authors thank J. Alexander, Y. Chen, H.-J. Gao, P.A. Lin, J. Kinder, M. MacDonald, R. Qiu, M. Sakr, R.M. Sankaran, and Y. Tian, for their collaboration. This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, under Grant No. 61428403. X.P.A. Gao also acknowledges the NSF CAREER Award Program (Grant No. DMR-1151534) for financial support of research at CWRU.

Abstract: The high electron mobility has granted indium arsenide (InAs) nanowires (NWs) as an important class of nanomaterials for high performance electronics such as field-effect transistors (FETs). We reviewed recent progresses on the studies of quantum coherence, gate tunable one-dimensional (1D) confinement and spin orbit interaction (SOI) in InAs NW based electronic and thermoelectric transport devices. We also demonstrated gas sensing response of InAs NW FETs and elucidated the mechanism via a gating experiment. By using InAs NWs as an example, these fundamental transport studies have shed important lights on the potential thermoelectric, spintronic and gas sensing applications of semiconductor NWs where the 1D confinement, SOI or surface states effects are exploited.

Key words: InAs nanowires, Electron and spin transport, Thermoelectrics, Gas sensing