Abnormal Electron Emission in a Vertical Graphene/Hexagonal Boron Nitride van der Waals Heterostructure Driven by a Hot Hole-Induced Auger Process

Cold Cathodes with Two-Dimensional van der Waals Materials

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials could be used as electron emitters alone or stacked in a heterostructure. Many significant phenomena of two-dimensional van der Waals field emitters have been observed and predicted since the landmark discovery of graphene. Due to the wide variety of heterostructures that integrate an atomic monolayer or multilayers with insulator nanofilms or metallic cathodes by van der Waals force, the diversity of van der Waals materials is large to be chosen from, which are appealing for further investigation. Until now, increasing the efficiency, stability, and uniformity in electron emission of cold cathodes with two-dimensional materials is still of interest in research. Some novel behaviors in electron emission, such as coherence and directionality, have been revealed by the theoretical study down to the atomic scale and could lead to innovative applications. Although intensive emission in the direction normal to two-dimensional emitters has been observed in experiments, the theoretical mechanism is still incomplete. In this paper, we will review some late progresses related to the cold cathodes with two-dimensional van der Waals materials, both in experiments and in the theoretical study, emphasizing the phenomena which are absent in the conventional cold cathodes. The review will cover the fabrication of several kinds of emitter structures for field emission applications, the state of the art of their field emission properties and the existing field emission model. In the end, some perspectives on their future research trend will also be given.

2D Heterostructures for Ubiquitous Electronics and Optoelectronics: Principles, Opportunities, and Challenges

A grand family of two-dimensional (2D) materials and their heterostructures have been discovered through the extensive experimental and theoretical efforts of chemists, material scientists, physicists, and technologists. These pioneering works contribute to realizing the fundamental platforms to explore and analyze new physical/chemical properties and technological phenomena at the micro-nano-pico scales. Engineering 2D van der Waals (vdW) materials and their heterostructures via chemical and physical methods with a suitable choice of stacking order, thickness, and interlayer interactions enable exotic carrier dynamics, showing potential in high-frequency electronics, broadband optoelectronics, low-power neuromorphic computing, and ubiquitous electronics. This comprehensive review addresses recent advances in terms of representative 2D materials, the general fabrication methods, and characterization techniques and the vital role of the physical parameters affecting the quality of 2D heterostructures. The main emphasis is on 2D heterostructures and 3D-bulk (3D) hybrid systems exhibiting intrinsic quantum mechanical responses in the optical, valley, and topological states. Finally, we discuss the universality of 2D heterostructures with representative applications and trends for future electronics and optoelectronics (FEO) under the challenges and opportunities from physical, nanotechnological, and material synthesis perspectives.

Ultrafast Electron Tunneling Devices-From Electric-Field Driven to Optical-Field Driven

The search for ever higher frequency information processing has become an area of intense research activity within the micro, nano, and optoelectronics communities. Compared to conventional semiconductor-based diffusive transport electron devices, electron tunneling devices provide significantly faster response times due to near-instantaneous tunneling that occurs at sub-femtosecond timescales. As a result, the enhanced performance of electron tunneling devices is demonstrated, time and again, to reimagine a wide variety of traditional electronic devices with a variety of new "lightwave electronics" emerging, each capable of reducing the electron transport channel transit time down to attosecond timescales. In response to unprecedented rapid progress within this field, here the current state-of-the-art in electron tunneling devices is reviewed, current challenges and opportunities are highlighted, and possible future research directions are identified.

There is plenty of room at the top: generation of hot charge carriers and their applications in perovskite and other semiconductor-based optoelectronic devices

Hot charge carriers (HC) are photoexcited electrons and holes that exist in nonequilibrium high-energy states of photoactive materials. Prolonged cooling time and rapid extraction are the current challenges for the development of future innovative HC-based optoelectronic devices, such as HC solar cells (HCSCs), hot energy transistors (HETs), HC photocatalytic reactors, and lasing devices. Based on a thorough analysis of the basic mechanisms of HC generation, thermalization, and cooling dynamics, this review outlines the various possible strategies to delay the HC cooling as well as to speed up their extraction. Various materials with slow cooling behavior, including perovskites and other semiconductors, are thoroughly presented. In addition, the opportunities for the generation of plasmon-induced HC through surface plasmon resonance and their technological applications in hybrid nanostructures are discussed in detail. By judiciously designing the plasmonic nanostructures, the light coupling into the photoactive layer and its optical absorption can be greatly enhanced as well as the successful conversion of incident photons to HC with tunable energies can also be realized. Finally, the future outlook of HC in optoelectronics is highlighted which will provide great insight to the research community.