Influence of spacer layer thickness on the current-voltage characteristics of pseudomorphic AlAs/In_0.53Ga_0.47As/InAs resonant tunnelling diodes

This paper investigates the dependence of current--voltage characteristics of AlAs/In_0.53Ga_0.47As/InAs resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) on spacer layer thickness. It finds that the peak and the valley current density J in the negative differential resistance (NDR) region depends strongly on the thickness of the spacer layer. The measured peak to valley current ratio of RTDs studied here is shown to improve while the current density through RTDs decreases with increasing spacer layer thickness below a critical value.