Semiconducting transport characteristics and their regulation in metal quantum structures

The silicon-based semiconductor industry is approaching its performance limit with the development in the post-Moore era. Along with the introduction of new device configurations, the design of metal quantum structures with semiconductor characteristics provides new alternatives for improving the performance of microelectronic devices. Real-life applications can be realized by opening their bandgaps and achieving gate-controllable semiconducting transport. Therefore, various metal quantum structures have been designed and developed since the end of the previous century. Further, effective control of their transport characteristics has been widely studied. In this paper, we review the research progress of metal quantum structures having different dimensions, including zero-dimensional quantum dots, one-dimensional nanowires/nanotubes, and two-dimensional materials/artificial lattices/superconducting films. Given the above structural systems, we introduce concepts to modify their energy gaps, analyze the realization methods and internal mechanisms of the controllable transport characteristics, and identify the electrical properties and application prospects of materials and structures. Furthermore, based on recent research progress, future research directions are proposed, including the development of the transport and spin correlation characteristics of metal quantum structures and the design of all-metallic channel materials, structures, and devices that can simultaneously transmit charge and spin information with a gate-controllable transport bandgap.