A nanoparticle-coated nanocrystal-gate for an InP-based heterostructure field-effect transistor

Nanoparticle coated nanocrystals are fabricated by the crystal lattice mediated self-assembly method. While the core material is insulating the conductivity of the nanocrystals is provided by a coating with nanoparticles. Commercially available gold-nanoparticles are selected in order to provide a highly conductive element for a Schottky diode functionality of a junction to a semiconductor. This approach is used to fabricate the gate of an InP-based heterostructure field-effect transistor. The nanoparticle coated nanocrystal gate is deposited and aligned on the device structure by an electrostatic self-assembly via additional side electrodes. The gate voltage is applied to the gate using conductive-tip scanning force microscopy. The output characteristics of the nanoparticle coated nanocrystal gate FET with a gate width and length of 1 μm × 0.36 μm exhibits an extrinsic transconductance of 160 mS/mm.