Photoemission oscillation measurement of barrier thickness for InAs/AlSb resonant tunneling diodes

Abstract

AlSb barrier thicknesses ranging from 5 to 12 monolayers have been measured during growth of InAs/AlSb resonant tunneling structures using the photoemission oscillation technique. A plot of peak current density as a function of both measured and estimated barrier thickness confirms that use of the photoemission oscillation technique reduces device performance variations with respect to the conventional time-based approach to layer thickness control. Our growth scheme involves a significant As background pressure during the AlSb growth which results in incorporation of As in the barrier layer. We have modeled the effect of the As incorporation on device properties and find that our measured peak current values are consistent with these calculations.