Temperature characterization of GaAs/AlGaAs connecting tunnel diodes

Abstract

The current-voltage characteristics of two types of GaAs-(δSi)/i-(GaAs/Al0.2Ga 0.8As)/p++-Al0.2Ga0.8As-(δBe) tunnel diode (TD) structures grown at different temperatures and epitaxial layer thicknesses have been investigated in the temperature range 100–400 K. Temperature dependences of the main TD parameters were determined: the peak value of the tunnel current density (Jp), the valley current density (Jv) and the differential resistance (Rd). TD samples of structure A grown at 500 °C exhibited the highest values of the peak current density (Jp ≤ 220 A/cm2) with temperature stability of 93 % over the whole temperature range. TD samples of structure B grown at 450 °C showed lower values of the peak tunneling current density (Jp ≤ 150 A/cm2), with significantly linear temperature dependence. Our findings can be used in the design and development of monolithic multijunction photoconverters of powerful laser radiation.

Keywords

• current-voltage characteristics
• tunnel diode
• epitaxial layer
• differential resistance
• peak tunneling current