Intrinsic nonlinearity of a PN-junction diode and higher order harmonic generation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the intrinsic nonlinearity of PN-junction diodes, demonstrating higher order harmonic generation and frequency mixing through experimental setups that produce up to the twentieth harmonic.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the nonlinear response of PN-junction diodes and experimentally demonstrates high-order harmonic generation and frequency mixing.

Findings

Higher order harmonics up to the twentieth are generated.

Nonlinear response resembles dielectric polarization.

Frequency mixing experiments show sum and difference frequencies.

Abstract

Voltage current characteristics of a PN-junction diode are intrinsically nonlinear in nature. It is shown in this paper that a mathematical form of nonlinearity of a PN-junction diode resembles the nonlinear response of electric polarization of a dielectric medium to the electric field. Nonlinearity of a PN-junction can be expressed in a series of successively increasing orders of the nonlinearity. For a PN-junction diode, higher order nonlinear terms become significant as a voltage across the diode is increased. In this paper, a gradual emergence of a nonlinear regime with the amplitude of a sinusoidal voltage is presented. Higher order harmonics are produced by utilizing the nonlinearity of a single PN-junction diode. An experimental realization of a frequency comb with the highest frequency up to the twentieth harmonics is also presented. In addition, in the same circuit by making the nonlinearity significant up to the second order, an experiment on generation of the sum and difference of frequencies is realized.