Asymmetric double barrier resonant tunneling structures with improved characteristics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that introducing asymmetry into double barrier resonant tunneling structures can significantly enhance their peak current and negative differential conductivity, offering improved device performance.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent calculation showing how structural asymmetry modifies current-voltage characteristics and enhances tunneling device performance.

Findings

Asymmetric structures produce larger peak currents.

Asymmetry increases negative differential conductivity.

Structural design influences tunneling efficiency.

Abstract

We present a self-consistent calculation, based on the global coherent tunnelling model, and show that structural asymmetry of double barrier resonant tunnelling structures significantly modifies the current-voltage characteristics compared to the symmetric structures. In particular, a suitably designed asymmetric structure can produce much larger peak current and absolute value of the negative differential conductivity than its commonly used symmetric counterpart.