INTERBAND TUNNELING MECHANISMS AND EFFECTS OF ALSB CENTER-BARRIER LAYER ON LIGHT-PARTICLE COUPLING AND REVERSE IV CHARACTERISTICS OF GASB/ALSB/INAS/ALSB/GASB/ALSB/INAS TRIPLE-BARRIER STRUCTURES

Light particle coupling-induced tunneling has been proven to contribute to the peak current density. The overlap carrier distribution combined with the transmission coefficient is utilized to interpret the interband tunneling mechanisms. The incorporation of an AlSb layer into the GaSb/InAs interface of GaSb/AlSb/InAs/GaSb/AlSb/InAs broken-gap structures results in GaSb/AlSb/InAs/AlSb/GaSb/AlSb/InAs triple-barrier interband tunneling structures, which have been demonstrated previously. The effects of the incorporated AlSb layer on the light particle coupling are theoretically investigated with the three-band model. It was found that, while incorporating the AlSb layer into the GaSb/InAs interface, the light-particle coupling at the interface becomes weaker, and the active region finally degenerates into two separate InAs and GaSb quantum wells. In addition, the AlSb center barrier also affects the reverse I-V characteristics of the triple-barrier structures, leading to a negative differential resistance in the reverse characteristics. The effect of the AlSb center barrier on the reverse I-V characteristics of the triple-barrier structure is also discussed.