InP-based strained In/sub 0.8/Ga/sub 0.2/As/AlAs resonant tunneling diodes with high peak-current density and large peak-to-valley current ratio grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy

Abstract

InP-based strained In/sub 0.8/Ga/sub 0.2/As/AlAs resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) were grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with the aim of fabricating of all-MOVPE-grown InP-based monolithic devices. We obtained high peak-current density (jp) of 1.46/spl times/10/sup 5/ A/cm/sup 2/, a peak-to-valley current ratio (PVR) of 7.7, and low peak voltage of 0.43 V simultaneously in a sample with 6-mono-layer-(ML)-thick AlAs barriers and a 4.5 nm-thick well at room temperature. A j/sub p/ of 4.09 /spl times/ 10/sup 5/ A/cm/sup 2/, with PVR of 3.8 was obtained for the sample with 4-ML-thick barriers. To the best of our knowledge, these are the best room-temperature characteristics ever achieved for any reported MOVPE-grown RTDs constructed using the InGaAlAs material system.