Principles of hot electron thermionic emission (real space transfer) in semicoductor heterolayers and device applications

Abstract

The principles of real space transfer and its phenomenological description in terms of the concepts of electron temperature and quasi Fermi levels are reviewed. It is shown that real space transfer is a mechanism to achieve ultrafast switching and storage of charge carriers. The real space transfer-glow cathod analogy, which demonstrates the existence of a new transistor principle, is discussed in detail.