Possible applications of topological insulator thin films for tunnel FETs

We have begun to explore the possibility of thin film three dimensional (3D) topological insulator (TI) based tunnel FETs (TFETs), specifically Bi₂Se₃ here, using quantum ballistic transport simulations with a tight-binding Hamiltonian in the atomic orbital basis including spin degrees of freedom. TI-based TFETs would be analogous in some ways to graphene nanoribbon TFETs, but without the sensitivity to ribbon width and edge roughness, and in some ways to narrow gap III-V TFETs but with substantially thinner quantum well widths.