Influence of minority carrier transport in the optical properties of double barrier diodes

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the importance of minority carrier transport in double barrier diodes (DBD). We propose a theoretical model capable to describe the photoluminescence properties observed in GaAs - Al 0.35 Ga0.65As double barrier diodes with the increase of temperature. In this model, we considered that the minority carries (holes) photocreated at the contact of the structure diffuse, drift and then tunnel to the well. To study the influence of previous transport mechanisms, we solved the continuity equation under the influence of an applied bias and an excitation laser light. The theoretical photocurrent and photoluminescence calculations agree quite well with the experimental observations. Within the approaches of our model, we are able to simulate the minority holes mobility from the photocurrent measurements suggesting the use of the experimental technique as a probe of the carrier mobility.