Submicrometric Heavily Doped n-GaAs Structures for Microwave Detection

Strong coupling between electrons and phonons in heavily doped semiconductors impedes, in general, investigation of hot carrier phenomena in the material. Investigations of hot electron electromotive force arising in symmetrically and asymmetrically shaped structures of heavily doped n-GaAs under microwave radiation are presented in this paper. Mesas of MBE grown n-GaAs layers with neck shaped down to submicron dimensions revealed strong dependence of voltage sensitivity of the structure on the size of the neck. Slight frequency dependence of voltage sensitivity of the microwave diodes with both symmetrically and asymmetrically shaped n-n$\text{}^{+}$ junctions was observed experimentally in K$\text{}_{a}$ frequency range, which coincides well with theoretical predictions