ROLE OF LATTICE VIBRATIONS IN A NANOSCALE ELECTRONIC DEVICE

The electronic current through a nanotransistor is studied. The nanotransistor is assumed to consist of a quantum dot active region connected to the source and drain wires and also to a gate. The electric current is shown to be influenced by the coupling of the electrons to the longitudinal optical phonons, namely, by the up-conversion of the electrons to the higher excited states in a quantum dot, due to a nonadiabatic effect of the lattice vibrations. In the nanotransistor with asymmetric source and drain contacts the up-conversion leads to a spontaneous electric current, or to a spontaneous voltage, between the electrodes. We remind some existing experiments which might be related to the effect under consideration.