A MULTIPLE-NEGATIVE-DIFFERENTIAL-RESISTANCE SWITCH WITH DOUBLE INGAP BARRIERS

A GaAs-InGaP switch has been fabricated and demonstrated. In this devi ce, double i-InGaP layers are employed to provide the potential barrie rs for carrier tunneling and hole confinement. As sufficient external voltage is applied to this device, a double S-shaped negative-differen tial resistance (NDR) characteristics is obtained resulting from the s equential avalanche multiplications in the high electric held regions. However, because of the poor confinement effect to holes, only a sing le S-shaped NDR phenomenon is observed at higher temperature, With dev ice parameters appropriately adjusted, this device may show prominent potential for multiple-valued logic applications. (C) 1996 American In stitute of Physics.