Hollow-cathode pulsed metal-vapor ionic lasers

Abstract

Dynamic properties of the resonant tunnelling structures (RTS) as an example of the dynamic nature of nanoelements are studied. Hysteresis and 'plateaulike' behaviours of the time-averaged current-voltage (I -V ) curve of resonant tunnelling structures may be obtained through analysing the high-frequency current oscillations in such structures. Our study shows that 'soft' generation of oscillations leads to the characteristic 'plateaulike' I -V form and 'rigid' generation of oscillations leads to 'hysteresis' I -V behaviour. The analysis is obtained by investigation of the limit cycles of the dynamical system corresponding to the modified equivalent circuit of the RTS developed by Buot and Jensen. In this paper it is clarified that RTS may be used not only as a device for generation of THz oscillations but it may also be used as the dynamic trigger which has two stable states: the stable limit cycle and stable static state.