A. Reklaitis et G. Mykolaitis, CURRENT SWITCHING AND INSTABILITY IN A HETEROSTRUCTURE HOT-ELECTRON DIODE, Solid-state electronics, 37(1), 1994, pp. 147-152
Current switching and instability in a heterostructure GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7
As/GaAs diode is studied by Monte Carlo particle technique. The conduc
tion band structure with three nonparabolic GAMMA, L and X valleys is
considered. The simulated heterostructure diode consists of the neares
t to cathode GaAs drift region, of the AlGaAs barrier region and of th
e nearest to anode GaAs region. The analysis shows that the conductanc
e switching from the low to high state is essentially influenced by th
e electron transport in the barrier region. Due to the S-shaped I-V ch
aracteristic microwave oscillations have been excited. The oscillation
s have been numerically studied under constant applied current operati
on.