Tunneling Processes in a Triangular Multibarrier Semiconductor Heterostructure

Author

Leite, Telio Nobre ; De Oliveira, Helinando Pequeno

Author_Institution

Mater. Sci. Inst., Fed. Univ. of Sao Francisco Valley (UNIVASAF), Juazeiro, Brazil

Volume

58

Issue

3

fYear

2011

fDate

3/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

716

Lastpage

719

Abstract

The study of the kinetics of tunneling represents an important topic related to the development of high-speed electronic devices. In this paper, we analyze the resonant-tunneling lifetime of different arrangements, with the aim of comparing the responses of rectangular and triangular multibarrier semiconductor heterostructures (GaAs/AlGaAs). The results indicate that the introduction of a triangular profile induces an average escape rate that is three times greater than that obtained by using a rectangular profile (on the order of Hz). This result is independent of the number of barriers in the device. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the escape rate from triangular multibarrier structures is calculated, allowing high-speed devices to be optimized.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; optimisation; resonant tunnelling; semiconductor heterojunctions; GaAs-AlGaAs; average escape rate; device barriers; high-speed device optimization; high-speed electronic device development; rectangular multibarrier semiconductor heterostructures; resonant-tunneling lifetime; triangular multibarrier semiconductor heterostructures GaAs-AlGaAs; triangular profile; tunneling kinetics; Average escape rate; high-speed electronic device; resonant-tunneling lifetime (RTL);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2010.2100399

Filename

5682401