Excess Noise in Germanium and Gallium-Arsenide Esaki Diodes in the Negative Resistance Region
- 1 November 1961
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 32 (11), 2408-2410
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1777082
Abstract
Low-frequency noise measurements have been made throughout the entire useful bias range of germanium and GaAs Esaki diodes. Evidence is presented in agreement with Esaki and Yajima that a near square-law relationship exists between the mean-square, short-circuit noise current and excess current for bias voltages beyond the valley voltage in germanium diodes. Attempts to find a like relationship in GaAs were not conclusive. Measurements of the noise within the negative-resistance regions of the diodes showed a nearly continuous exponential relationship between excess noise and bias for the germanium units and a similar plot was obtained for the GaAs diodes, except a well-defined peak in the noise current was found at about 0.2 v forward bias. The evidence that the results indicate a rather continuous distribution of allowed states in the forbidden band of the germanium samples and a possible localized maximum in these states in the GaAs samples is discussed.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Excess Tunnel Current in Silicon Esaki JunctionsPhysical Review B, 1961
- Pressure Dependence of the Current-Voltage Characteristics of Esaki DiodesPhysical Review Letters, 1960
- Excess Noise in Narrow Germanium p-n JunctionsJournal of the Physics Society Japan, 1958
- New Phenomenon in Narrow GermaniumJunctionsPhysical Review B, 1958