OBSERVATION OF RESONANT-TUNNELING THROUGH LOCALIZED CONTINUUM STATES IN ELECTRON-WAVE INTERFERENCE DIODES

A 13 layer aperiodic semiconductor superlattice electron wave interfer ence filter, designed with thin-film optical interference filter techn iques by using the analogies between electromagnetic wave propagation in dielectrics and ballistic electron wave propagation in semiconducto rs, was realized in the GaAs/AlGaAs material system. Current-voltage m easurements at 300 and 77 K show negative differential resistance peak s (with peak-to-valley current ratios of 1.25 and 3.9, respectively) t hat represent observation of tunneling through an above barrier locali zed quasibound state. We show that electron wave interference devices could compete with resonant tunneling diodes as high frequency oscilla tors based on dc device characteristics and theoretical subpicosecond tunneling traversal times.