Tunnel diodes

Fig. 8. (a) Structure of a typical resonant tunneling diode (RTD) (b) conduction band diagram for the barrier stmcture where (-------) represents the... 

The main use of elemental As is in alloys with Pb and to a lesser extent Cu. Addition of small concentrations of As improves die properties of Pb/Sb for storage batteries (see below ), up to 0.75% improves the hardness and castabilily of type metal, and 0 5-2.0% improves the sphericity of Pb ammunition. Automotive body solder is Pb (92%),, Sb (5 0%), Sn (2.5%) and As (0.5%). Intcrnxitallic compounds with Al, Ga and In give the 111-V semiconductors (p 255) of which GaAs and InAs are of particular value for light-emitting diodes (LEDs), tunnel diodes, infrared emitters, laser windows and Hall-effect devices (p. 258). 

The simplest and most widely used model to explain the response of organic photovoltaic devices under illumination is a metal-insulaior-metal (MIM) tunnel diode [55] with asymmetrical work-function metal electrodes (see Fig. 15-10). In forward bias, holes from the high work-function metal and electrons from the low work-function metal are injected into the organic semiconductor thin film. Because of the asymmetry of the work-functions for the two different metals, forward bias currents are orders of magnitude larger than reverse bias currents at low voltages. The expansion of the current transport model described above to a carrier generation term was not taken into account until now. 

Coulomb blockade effects have been observed in a tunnel diode architectme consisting of an aluminum electrode covered by a six-layer LB film of eicosanoic acid, a layer of 3.8-nm CdSe nanoparticles capped with hexanethiol, and a gold electrode [166]. The LB film serves as a tunneling barrier between aluminum and the conduction band of the CdSe particles. The conductance versus applied voltage showed an onset of current flow near 0.7 V. The curve shows some small peaks as the current first rises that were attributed to surface states. The data could be fit using a tunneling model integrated between the bottom of the conduction band of the particles and the Fermi level of the aluminum electrode. 

The proposed technique seems to be rather promising for the formation of electronic devices of extremely small sizes. In fact, its resolution is about 0.5-0.8 nm, which is comparable to that of molecular beam epitaxy. However, molecular beam epitaxy is a complicated and expensive technique. All the processes are carried out at 10 vacuum and repair extrapure materials. In the proposed technique, the layers are synthesized at normal conditions and, therefore, it is much less expansive. The presented results had demonstrated the possibility of the formation of superlattices with this technique. The next step will be the fabrication of devices based on these superlattices. To begin with, two types of devices wiU be focused on. The first will be a resonant tunneling diode. In this case the quantum weU will be surrounded by two quantum barriers. In the case of symmetrical structure, the resonant... 

The FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) model [82] is a simplification of the HH model and involves a tunnel diode (Fig. 23). 

Fig. 1 Schematic drawings of a tunnel diode, an STM, and the electronic energy diagram appropriate for both. U is the height of the potential barrier, E is the energy of the incident electron, d is the thickness of the barrier, A is approximately 1.02 A/(eV)1/2 if U and E are in electron volts and d is in angstroms, /0 is the wavefunction of the incident electron, and /d is the wavefunction after transmission through the barrier. I is the measured tunneling current, V is the applied bias, and M and M are the electrode metals...

The invariance of IETS in an M-A-M junction vs an M-I-A-M device is exceptionally well demonstrated by the work of Reed [30], Figure 7 shows the Au-alkanedithiol-Au structure he used to create a single barrier tunnel diode. The IET spectra obtained from this device were stable and repeatable upon successive bias sweeps. The spectrum at 4.2 K is characterized by three pronounced peaks in the 0-200 mV region at 33,133, and 158 mV. From comparison with previously reported IR, Raman, and high-resolution electron energy-loss (HREEL) spectra of... 

T. Misawa, IMPATT Diodes H.C. Okean, Tunnel Diodes... 

A. Rawlett, J. Chen, M. A Reed, J. M. Tom, Advances in Molecular Scale Electronics Synthesis and Testing of Molecular Scale Resonant Tunneling Diodes and Molecular Scale Controllers, Polym. Mater, Sci. Engin (Am Chem Soc, Div. Polym Mater) 1999, 81,140-141. 

It was demonstrated that reproducible gas-sensitive silicon Schottky sensors could be produced after terminating the silicon surface with an oxide layer [71, 72]. This interfacial oxide layer permits the device to function as a sensor, but also as a diode, as the charge carriers can tunnel through the insulating layer. The layer made the Schottky diode behave like a tunneling diode, and the ideality factor could be voltage-dependent [73]. 

Fig. 34. Schematic valence band diagram of resonant tunneling diode structures, simplified diagram of energy versus wave vector parallel to the interface, and resulting /-V curve by spin-splitting of the valence band of...

Fig. 35. Temperature dependence of the differential conductance d//dV versus bias voltage V of a resonant tunneling diode with a (Ga,Mn)As emitter. No magnetic held is applied (Ohno et al. 1998). (b) Calculated resonant tunneling spectra as a function of the exchange energy NqP (Akiba et al. 2000b).

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