CURRENT HYSTERESIS COLLAPSE AND THE FORMATION CONDITION FOR ELECTRIC-FIELD DOMAINS IN LIGHTLY DOPED SUPERLATTICES

It is shown that under resonance tunneling conditions the energy struc ture of electric-field domains in doped superlattices is substantially different from a resonance structure. As the impurity concentration d ecreases, the domain walls become wider and the current hysteresis bec omes narrower (collapses) as a result of the mismatch of the resonance levels in the region of a domain wall. A physical interpretation of t he criterion for the existence of electric-field domains is given. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.