Resonant tunneling heterostructure devices - Dependencies on thickness and number of quantum wells

Abstract

We present numerical results for GaAs/AlGaAs double-barrier resonant tunneling heterostructure devices. A particular emphasis is given to the influence of quantum well thickness and number of quantum well layers on current-voltage characteristic and carrier density profile. In the paper, we discuss results obtained for spatial dependencies of carrier densities, the peak and the valley current density, and corresponding potentials in N-shaped current-voltage characteristics for various resonant tunneling heterostructures. Results are based on the transient quantum drift-diffusion model. They are obtained by solving a coupled system of partial differential equations directly and, in contrast to previous analysis, no decoupling algorithms, procedures, or methods are used. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.