OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES BASED ON INTRABAND TRANSITIONS IN COMBINATIONS OF TYPE I AND TYPE II TUNNEL JUNCTIONS

• Main Authors: MENDEZ; EMILIO E, ESAKI; LEO, OHNO; HIDEO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 07.01.1992
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

The present invention is directed to novel optoelectronic devices, such as light emitters and detectors, that have a unique combination of semiconductor materials that provides a band arrangement resulting in improved efficiency of carrier injection. The devices are quantum well type devices in which discrete electronic states are formed by size quantization effects in the quantum well region. Electromagnetic radiation of emission and absorption occurs by the transition of electrons from a first energy state to a second energy state in either the conduction band or the valence band of the quantum well layer (12). The bands edges of the layers are offset such that under an appropriate bias, the discrete energy states reside in the bandgap of one of the electrodes (14) and in an allowed region of the other electrode (16), with one state residing in the conduction band of one electrode and the other state residing in the valence band of the other electrode. The wavelength of the emitted or detected light is inversely proportional to the energy difference between the first and second states. Wavelength customization is facilitated by techniques for adjusting the energy difference.