Effect of low and staggered gap quantum wells inserted in GaAs tunnel junctions

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Vol. 51; no. 14; pp. 145107 - 145111
• Main Authors: Louarn, K, Claveau, Y, Marigo-Lombart, L, Fontaine, C, Arnoult, A, Piquemal, F, Bounouh, A, Cavassilas, N, Almuneau, G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 16.03.2018
• Subjects: Electric power; Engineering Sciences; interband tunneling; Micro and nanotechnologies; Microelectronics; molecular beam epitaxy; multi-junction solar cell; photovoltaics; Physics; Quantum Physics; quantum well; tunnel junction; multi-junction solar cell; molecular beam epitaxy; quantum well; SEMICONDUCTORS; interband tunneling; DIODES; photovoltaics; tunnel junction
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aab1de

In this article, we investigate the impact of the insertion of either a type I InGaAs or a type II InGaAs/GaAsSb quantum well on the performances of MBE-grown GaAs tunnel junctions (TJs). The devices are designed and simulated using a quantum transport model based on the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and a 6-band k.p Hamiltonian. We experimentally observe significant improvements of the peak tunneling current density on both heterostructures with a 460-fold increase for a moderately doped GaAs TJ when the InGaAs QW is inserted at the junction interface, and a 3-fold improvement on a highly doped GaAs TJ integrating a type II InGaAs/GaAsSb QW. Thus, the simple insertion of staggered band lineup heterostructures enables us to reach a tunneling current well above the kA cm−2 range, equivalent to the best achieved results for Si-doped GaAs TJs, implying very interesting potential for TJ-based components, such as multi-junction solar cells, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and tunnel-field effect transistors.