Room temperature operation of GaSb-based resonant tunneling diodes by prewell injection

Abstract

We present room temperature resonant tunneling of GaSb/AlAsSb double barrier resonant tunneling diodes with pseudomorphically grown prewell emitter structures comprising the ternary compound semiconductors GaInSb and GaAsSb. At room temperature, resonant tunneling is absent for diode structures without prewell emitters. The incorporation of Ga0.84In0.16Sb and GaAs0.05Sb0.95 prewell emitters leads to room temperature resonant tunneling with peak‐to‐valley current ratios of 1.45 and 1.36 , respectively. The room temperature operation is attributed to the enhanced Γ ‐L‐valley energy separation and consequently depopulation of L‐valley states in the conduction band of the ternary compound emitter prewell with respect to bulk GaSb.