Abstract

Due to recent advances in the growth and fabrication of nanostructure electronic devices, it has been demonstrated that ballistic electron waves can be reflected, refracted, interfered, waveguided, and diffracted in a manner analogous to electromagnetic optics.¹ This has provided a surge of interest in the new field of semiconductor electron wave optics. In this paper, ballistic electron grating diffraction by a grating with an arbitrary effective mass and/or potential energy profile is analyzed using a rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA). These results are related to electromagnetic diffraction by a permittivity grating. It is shown that electron diffraction by a kinetic energy grating is exactly analogous to TE electromagnetic diffraction and that electron diffraction by an effective mass grating is exactly analogous to TM electromagnetic diffraction. Approximate solutions to the RCWA equations are derived that are equivalent to Bragg regime and Raman-Nath diffraction. Using these results, sample electron wave diffractive switches and multiplexers are designed and analyzed. Both Bragg regime and Raman-Nath regime devices are designed using achievable device configurations. The angular and energy selectivity of these devices are examined.

© 1991 Optical Society of America