Negative differential resistance and unsaturated magnetoresistance effects based on avalanche breakdown

Abstract

The negative differential resistance (NDR) effect and magnetoresistance (MR) effect attract a lot of attention since they have been widely applied in fields such as circuit amplifiers and information storage, respectively. In general, the NDR and MR effects derive from different physical mechanisms, which makes it difficult to obtain both an NDR effect and a large unsaturated MR effect in a device based on the same physical mechanism. In this paper, the NDR and unsaturated MR effects were observed simultaneously in In/SiO 2 /p-Si/SiO 2 /In hetero junction devices, and their physical mechanisms were investigated. It is found that under zero magnetic field conditions, the NDR effect can be observed up to 25 K which is much higher than the temperature of NDR obtaining in intrinsic silicon. The NDR effect is significantly enhanced by applying a small magnetic field of 0.1 T. Meanwhile, the unsaturated positive MR effect is obtained when an external magnetic field is applied. Our analysis shows that the NDR effect and the unsaturated MR effect can be explained on the basis of the same physical mechanism of the avalanche breakdown in the In/SiO 2 /p-Si hetero junction. The NDR effect mainly results from complex effects containing the carrier injection after avalanche breakdown in the hetero junction, the reduction of the Schottky barrier height and the Joule heating effect. The large unsaturated MR effect derives from the suppression of the plasma due to avalanche breakdown by the applied magnetic field. The largest value of MR based on avalanche breakdown can reach about 530%@1 T at 10 K, and MR sensitivity can be as high as about 29.4 T −1 under 0.05 T.

Unconventional room-temperature negative magnetoresistance effect in Au/n-Ge:Sb/Au devices

“…This conventional unsaturated MR feature is analogous to the previous works on the MR effect of non-magnetic semiconductor materials and their devices. [20,22,28,[30][31][32] However, we cannot observe negative MR effect in the static low magnetic field environment. To clarify the evolution mechanism of the MR properties of the device under pulsed high magnetic field, we investigate the Hall effect of the device.…”

Evolution of Electrical Transport Property in Ge‐Based Negative Differential Resistance Devices under Pulsed High Magnetic Field

“…Negative differential resistance (NDR) effect has been attracting much attention due to its wide application in circuit amplifiers, [1] oscillators, [2] memories, [3] logic functions, [4] etc. At present, the NDR effect has been found in many materials and their devices, such as germanium (Ge), [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] silicon, [14][15][16] transition metal oxides, [17,18] rubrene/Bi 2 Se 3 , [19] etc. Especially, the research on NDR of germanium (Ge)-based devices is important because of their strong compatibility with the existing semiconductor devices.…”

“…[5,7,8,13] The charged particles in the devices can be strongly influenced by the external magnetic field, and their motion state will change, leading to the change in the properties of the devices. For example, under low static magnetic field (lower than 1 T), the NDR of the Si-based heterojunction device [14] and long p þ -π-n þ diode structure [20] can be effectively enhanced. In the process of the exploration entering outer space from the Earth, it may encounter a stronger magnetic field environment (such as nuclear electromagnetic pulse, outer space, etc.).…”

Magnetic Field Effect on Photocatalytic Dye Degradation: A Review

“…The separation of charge carriers of magnetic catalysts under the influence of magnetic field by negative magnetoresistance effect. Negative magnetoresistance (MR) is a spintronic phenomenon in which the magnetic field can regulate the material's resistance [141] . The resistance with and without a magnetic field can be defined by R(H) and R(0), and then negative MR can be calculated by equation [142] …”

“…Negative magnetoresistance (MR) is a spintronic phenomenon in which the magnetic field can regulate the material's resistance. [141] The resistance with and without a magnetic field can be defined by R(H) and R(0), and then negative MR can be calculated by equation. [142] MR% ¼ ½RðHÞ-R ð0Þ�=R ð0Þ * 100 %…”