Using polymer electrolyte gates to set-and-freeze threshold voltage and local potential in nanowire-based devices and thermoelectrics

Abstract: We use the strongly temperature-dependent ionic mobility in polymer electrolytes to 'freeze in' specific ionic charge environments around a nanowire using a local wrap-gate geometry. This enables us to set both the threshold voltage for a conventional doped substrate gate and the local disorder potential at temperatures below 200 Kelvin, which we characterize in detail by combining conductance and thermovoltage measurements with modeling. Our results demonstrate that local polymer electrolyte gates are compatible with nanowire thermoelectrics, where they offer the advantage of a very low thermal conductivity, and hold great potential towards setting the optimal operating point for solid-state cooling applications.