NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR OBTAINING STEEPLY NONLINEAR CURRENT–VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS IN SOME SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURES

Abstract

Electronic processes in a semiconductor system consisting of some resonant tunneling structures, built in the depletion region of a Schottky barrier, are investigated. It is shown that the Schottky barrier can block or unblock the resonant tunneling current effectively. Tunneling processes do reveal the coherent character. Sharply nonlinear current–voltage characteristics are observed for both the forward and the reverse branches.