Uncovering anisotropic effects of electric high-moment dipoles on the tunneling current in [Formula: see text]-layer tunnel junctions.

The precise positioning of dopants in semiconductors using scanning tunneling microscopes has led to the development of planar dopant-based devices, also known as [Formula: see text]layer-based devices, facilitating the exploration of new concepts in classical and quantum computing. Recently, it has been shown that two distinct conductivity regimes (low- and high-bias regimes) exist in [Formula: see text]-layer tunnel junctions due to the presence of quasi-discrete and continuous states in the conduction band of [Formula: see text]-layer systems. Furthermore, discrete charged impurities in the tunnel junction region significantly influence the tunneling rates in [Formula: see text]-layer tunnel junctions.

Conductivity and size quantization effects in semiconductor [Formula: see text]-layer systems.

We present an open-system quantum-mechanical 3D real-space study of the conduction band structure and conductive properties of two semiconductor systems, interesting for their beyond-Moore and quantum computing applications: phosphorus [Formula: see text]-layers and P [Formula: see text]-layer tunnel junctions in silicon. In order to evaluate size quantization effects on the conductivity, we consider two principal cases: nanoscale finite-width structures, used in transistors, and infinitely-wide structures, electrical properties of which are typically known experimentally. For devices widths [Formula: see text] nm, quantization effects are strong and it is shown that the number of propagating modes determines not only the conductivity, but the distinctive spatial distribution of the current-carrying electron states.