Transport and optical properties of resonant tunneling structures

Transport properties of a GaAs/AlAs superlattice-like double barrier diode are studied in this work as a function of the sample temperature. An activation energy of about 60meV obtained from the Arrhenius plot is in good agreement with the confined level in the central well. Numerical simulations also confirm the importance of bound levels in the gammaand X bands for the resonant tunneling process. The enhancement of photoluminescence as the temperature is increased is also studied. This behavior is associated to the transport properties of holes in the collector contact, which control the supply of minority carriers, which tunnel into the well. The description of the observed results requires the modi-cation of simple known models to take into account the two contributions to the pair generation rate in the well, responsible of the photoluminescence at zero and finite bias