INGAAS ALAS INGAASP RESONANT-TUNNELING HOT-ELECTRON TRANSISTORS GROWNBY CHEMICAL BEAM EPITAXY

InP-based resonant tunneling hot electron transistors (RHET's) were st udied systematically using chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) for the first t ime. All the RHET's studied have a highly strained AlAs/In0.75Ga0.25As /AlAs resonant tunneling double barrier as a hot electron injector, an d an InP collector barrier with or without InGaAsP graded layers. The highest transport ratio (alpha) observed is 0.98, and the highest peak -to-valley current ratios (PVR's) measured are 20 and 200 in the colle ctor current and base current, respectively, at 80 K. A self-consisten t simulation is used as a reference to optimize the hot electron injec tor and to explain the ballistic transport. An energy spectrometer tec hnique was applied to the RHET's for resolving the hot electron energy distribution which showed a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of arou nd 58 meV, indicating ballistic transport of electrons. Finally, room temperature transistor action was also observed with a beta of 4 and a cutoff frequency of 31 GHz.