Negative dierential resistance in terahertz quantum well detectors

Alexandre Delga (1) , Laetitia Doyennette (1) , Amandine Buffaz (1) , Vincent Berger (1) , François-Régis Jasnot (2) , Nicolas Péré-Laperne (2) , Louis-Anne de Vaulchier (2) , H.C. Liu (3)

1 MPQ (UMR_7162) - Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques
2 LPA - Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain
3 NRC - IMS - Institute for Microstructural Sciences

In THz QWIPs, quantum well impact ionization rules electronic transport between two dierent regimes separated by huge shifts in the current and negative dierential resistivity behavior. This paper is dedicated to give some insight into the microscopic transport physical mechanism. The investigation of bias versus current measurements reveals that the rst two wells of the structure become partially drained, and that second well enters the ionized regime before the rst one. Both many body eects and a careful model of the contact have to be considered to account for these features. The use of this mechanism can lead to the design of very high gain fast THz detectors.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Alexandre Delga, Laetitia Doyennette, Amandine Buffaz, Vincent Berger, François-Régis Jasnot, et al.. Negative dierential resistance in terahertz quantum well detectors. 2010. ⟨hal-00518160⟩