Observation of negative differential resistance from a single barrier heterostructure
- 4 January 1988
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 52 (1), 54-56
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.99316
Abstract
We report the first experimental observation of negative differential resistance (NDR) due to electron tunneling in a single barrier heterostructure. The largest peak-to-valley current ratio attained is slightly greater than 2:1. The single barrier structure studied here consists of a thin CdTe layer sandwiched between two Hg0.78Cd0.22Te electrodes. In this particular material system, NDR can only be achieved at low temperatures (T=4.2 K) due to the dominance of thermionic hole currents at high temperatures. The observation of NDR in this system suggests that the low-temperature valence-band discontinuity at the HgTe-CdTe interface is small (less than 100 mV). Room-temperature operation of single barrier NDR structures may be possible in other semiconductor systems.Keywords
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