The study of negative differential resistance phenomenon in a two-step barrier diode

Author

Lin, Jia-Chum ; Wang, Shui-Jinn ; Liou, Wan-Rone ; Luo, Ying-Che ; Cheng, Ching-Yuan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan, Taiwan

fYear

1996

fDate

26-28 Nov 1996

Firstpage

140

Lastpage

143

Abstract

In this work, the realization of a Al_xGa_1-xAs/GaAs two-step barrier diode is presented. Experimental observation on the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the two-step barrier diode is reported for the first time. At both room temperature and 77 K, it shows a strong negative differential resistance (NDR) under forward bias while no similar phenomenon was observed under reverse bias. Such an asymmetric I-V characteristic would open the possibility of NDR in an ac field in the absence of a dc bias. Theoretical simulation and experimental I-V characteristics are compared and discussed

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; negative resistance; semiconductor device models; semiconductor diodes; tunnelling; 300 K; 77 K; Al_xGa_1-xAs/GaAs two-step barrier diode; AlGaAs-GaAs; NDR phenomenon; asymmetric I-V characteristic; current-voltage characteristics; forward bias; negative differential resistance; room temperature; simulation; Diodes; Electric resistance; Electrons; Energy states; Gallium arsenide; Microelectronics; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Resonance; Resonant tunneling devices; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Electronics, 1996. ICSE '96. Proceedings., 1996 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Penang

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3388-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMELEC.1996.616470

Filename

616470