Steep nonlinearity of the the forward-biased current–voltage characteristic of a system with a double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure built into a Schottky barrier

A contact between a metal and an n-type semiconductor with a double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure built into the space-charge region is investigated. Besides the well-known effect in which the current falls sharply, there is an additional possibilty: in this system there can also be a steep n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Low temperature physics (Woodbury, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2000-11, Vol.26 (11), p.849-852
Main Authors: Korol’, A. N., Tretyak, O. V., Sheka, D. I.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:A contact between a metal and an n-type semiconductor with a double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure built into the space-charge region is investigated. Besides the well-known effect in which the current falls sharply, there is an additional possibilty: in this system there can also be a steep nonlinearity of the current–voltage (I–V) characteristic, specifically, an effect wherein the current increases precipitously. It is shown that the differential slope of the forward branch of the I–V characteristic can be considerably greater than e/kT — by more than an order of magnitude at optimum values of the parameters of the problem. The dependence of the I–V characteristic on the parameters of the structure is analyzed.
ISSN:1063-777X
1090-6517
DOI:10.1063/1.1330601