PHOTOCONTROLLED DOUBLE-BARRIER RESONANT-TUNNELING DIODE

A photocontrolled InGaAs/AlAs double-barrier resonant-tunneling diode, for the first time, has been demonstrated. The photoinduced valley current in the resonant-tunneling diode was optically controlled by varying the incident optical power level. With the incident optical power intense enough, the photogenerated valley current became dominant over the peak current. As a consequence, the negative differential resistance of the device was nullified. A photogeneration process, based on photogenerating carriers in the depletion region adjacent to the double barriers, is described and characterized. The device under illumination was modeled as a resonant-tunneling diode in series integration with a photodetector. The quantum efficiency for the photogeneration was measured and found comparable with theoretical prediction. The demonstrated photocontrolled double-barrier resonant-tunneling diode can be useful in a variety of applications.