Observation of negative differential resistance in GaAlAs single-barrier heterostructure at room temperature

Abstract

Observation of experimental negative differential resistance at room temperature due to electron tunneling in a multiple-step single-barrier GaAlAs heterostructure is reported. Theoretical investigations of a three-step single-barrier heterostructure were conducted using the transfer matrix method and the Tsu–Esaki approach to obtain the transmission coefficients and current–voltage characteristic, respectively. The system was designed based on these calculations, and grown with molecular beam epitaxy. The diode exhibited negative differential resistance at 300 K and had a peak-to-valley current ratio above unity, which was in agreement with the predicted values.