Temperature tuning from direct to inverted bistable electroluminescence in resonant tunneling diodes

Abstract

We study the electroluminescence (EL) emission of purely n-doped resonant tunneling diodes in a wide temperature range. The paper demonstrates that the EL originates from impact ionization and radiative recombination in the extended collector region of the tunneling device. Bistable current-voltage response and EL are detected and their respective high and low states are tuned under varying temperature. The inversion bistability of the EL intensity can be switched from direct to inverted with respect to the tunneling current and the optical on/off ratio can be enhanced with increasing temperature. One order of magnitude amplification of the optical on/off ratio can be attained compared to the electrical one. Our observation can be explained by an interplay of moderate peak-to-valley current ratios, large resonance voltages, and electron energy loss mechanisms and thus could be applied as an alternative route towards optoelectronic applications of tunneling devices.

Electroluminescence on-off ratio control of n−i−n GaAs/AlGaAs-based resonant tunneling structures

“…1(a)]. Depending on the spatial origin of the hole generation, the holes drift and recombine with electrons in different regions of the structure, e.g., close to the collector contact [10], in the QW, or in the emitter region. Figure 1(c) shows the normalized EL spectra obtained in two different voltage regimes before (black circles, bias voltage of 2.6 V) and after (dark yellow circles, bias voltage of 4.4 V) the resonant current peak.…”

“…Although the heterostructure device layouts of RTDs are rather simple, certain requirements must be achieved in order to produce high quality devices, e.g., low leakage current and large peak-to-valley current ratio (PVCR) [7]. Apart from being the fastest semiconductor devices used for practical applications [8,9], RTDs are also suitable for optoelectronic uses as they can be light emitters and detectors [5,10,11]. In purely n-doped RTDs, light emission occurs via electroluminescence (EL) due to either impact ionization processes taking place along the structure [10,12,13] or Zener tunneling, that is, direct interband tunneling from the valence to conduction band under high electric fields [14,15].…”

“…Apart from being the fastest semiconductor devices used for practical applications [8,9], RTDs are also suitable for optoelectronic uses as they can be light emitters and detectors [5,10,11]. In purely n-doped RTDs, light emission occurs via electroluminescence (EL) due to either impact ionization processes taking place along the structure [10,12,13] or Zener tunneling, that is, direct interband tunneling from the valence to conduction band under high electric fields [14,15]. Light emission enables the extraction of reliable information about the diode, such as charge buildup, carrier dynamics, and system temperature, all of which enrich the whole transport picture [16][17][18].…”

Resonant Tunneling Diode Photonics

“…RTDs have been incorporated into laser diodes (RTD-LD) [67] and light emitting diodes (LEDs)-RTD-LED [69]. Usually the light emission requires that the RTD is combined with a pn junction but it has also recently been observed in devices without p type material and operates via impact ionisation [70].…”

NanoLEDs for energy-efficient and gigahertz-speed spike-based sub-λ neuromorphic nanophotonic computing

“…Remarkably, the theoretical cut-off frequency of single DBQW-QRTs is limited by the tunneling escape time in the quantum well [44]. As a result, the quantum resonant tunneling effect and NDC characteristic has been exploited in a wide-range of electronic and photonic devices, including THz quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing [46], THz emitters and detectors for imaging [47], and communications beyond 5G (world record oscillation at 1.92 THz [45]), single-photon switches and detectors [48,49], electroluminescence in III-nitride LED sources [50], III-V unipolar bistable QRT [51], bipolar QRT-based LEDs [52][53][54] and lasers [55,56], near-IR photodetectors for optical communications [57], and mid-IR detectors for sensing [58], to name only a few. For neuron computation, early works evoked QRTbased devices as potential nanoelectronic candidates for cellular neural networks as a form of threshold logical gates [59].…”