Chirality-induced intrinsic charge rectification in a tellurium-based field-effect transistor

Abstract

We report gate-induced enhancement of intrinsic charge rectification without p-n junctions in chiral semiconductor Te under magnetic field B. As gating shifts the chemical potential to the valence band maximum of Te, the charge rectification efficiency is enhanced hundredfold. By integrating model calculations, we attribute the charge rectification to the B-induced asymmetry of the chiral band structure. We also show that the carrier density subject to this asymmetry is augmented by a saddle-point structure near the valence band maximum, which further enhances the gate-tunable charge rectification together with its improved switchability and thermal robustness.