THE EFFECT OF A HIGH-ENERGY INJECTION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF MM WAVE GUNN OSCILLATORS

The 'dead zone' existing in conventional n** plus nn** plus GaAs Gunn diodes was eliminated by the addition of a cathode structure which launches electrons into the active region at nearly the energy required for intervally transfer. The experimental efficiency and output power from devices made with the launcher were up to three times higher at 80-100 GHz than from conventional n** plus nn** plus devices designed for these frequencies. The launcher was realized by the energy discontinuity at the interface of a n-AlGaAs/n-GaAs heterojunction, where the transport is perpendicular to the interface.