Uncovering anisotropic effects of electric high-moment dipoles on the tunneling current in $$\delta$$-layer tunnel junctions
Abstract The precise positioning of dopants in semiconductors using scanning tunneling microscopes has led to the development of planar dopant-based devices, also known as $$\delta$$ δ 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 $$\delta$$ δ -layer tunnel junctions due to the presence of quasi-discrete and continuous states in the conduction band of $$\delta$$ δ -layer systems. Furthermore, discrete charged impurities in the tunnel junction region significantly influence the tunneling rates in $$\delta$$ δ -layer tunnel junctions. Here we demonstrate that electrical dipoles, i.e. zero-charge defects, present in the tunnel junction region can also significantly alter the tunneling rate, depending, however, on the specific conductivity regime, and orientation and moment of the dipole. In the low-bias regime, with high-resistance tunneling mode, dipoles of nearly all orientations and moments can alter the current, indicating the extreme sensitivity of the tunneling current to the slightest imperfection in the tunnel gap. In the high-bias regime, with low-resistivity, only dipoles with high moments and oriented in the directions perpendicular to the electron tunneling direction can significantly affect the current, thus making this conductivity regime significantly less prone to the influence of dipole defects with low-moments or oriented in the direction parallel to the tunneling.