MODELING OF RESONANT INTERBAND TUNNELING STRUCTURES AS BACK-BACK INTER-DIMENSIONAL ESAKI DIODES

In recent years, improvements in semiconductor growth technologies hav e permitted the construction of devices in which carriers tunnel throu gh confined sub-band states via n-p-n junctions or staggered-band-edge (Type II) heterostructures, this process often being denoted ''Resona nt Interband Tunnelling'' (RIT), The interband tunnelling current in 3 D-2D-3D structures may also be modelled within a modified form of the theoretical framework of the Esaki diode, and the similarities to, and differences from, both single-band Resonant Tunnelling Diode (RTD) an d RIT devices and effects are discussed. Consideration is also taken o f the electrical properties of circuits based around such devices, and good correlation is found between our approach and the experimental r esults demonstrated by a number of authors in recent years. Estimates of other factors, such as recombination lifetime of the quantum well r esonant state (which appears to be much smaller than the carrier trans it time) appear to support an Esaki, rather than a resonant, interpret ation of the tunnelling process in such devices