Piezoelectric effects in (001)-oriented double barrier resonant tunneling structures

Journal Article · Sun Mar 12 23:00:00 EST 1995 · Applied Physics Letters; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.113200· OSTI ID:6493504

Cong, L; Albrecht, J D; Nathan, M I; Ruden, P P ^[1]; Smith, D L ^[2]

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1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

We show that piezoelectric effects can give rise to internal electric fields that modify the current--voltage characteristics of double barrier resonant tunneling devices, if suitable stresses are applied. Electric polarization fields in the direction perpendicular to the interfaces arise in heterostructures on (001)-oriented substrates under uniaxial stress parallel to the (110) or (1[bar 1]0) orientations. We measured current--voltage characteristics of (001)-oriented AlAs/GaAs/AlAs double barrier structures as a function of uniaxial external stress applied parallel to the (110) and the (1[bar 1]0) orientations. The substrate contact was grounded in all measurements. Under (110) stress, the resonance peaks shift to more positive voltages for both positive and negative bias. For (1[bar 1]0) stress, the peaks shift toward more negative voltages. We also calculated the current--voltage characteristics of resonant tunneling structures under uniaxial stress, taking into account stress effects on the band alignment and piezoelectric effects. We obtain satisfactory agreement between our calculations which contain no adjusted parameters and the measured data.

• OSTI ID: 6493504
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters; (United States) Vol. 66:11; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360606* -- Other Materials-- Physical Properties-- (1992-)
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRICITY
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
HETEROJUNCTIONS
JUNCTIONS
PIEZOELECTRICITY
PNICTIDES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
TUNNEL DIODES
TUNNELING