OBSERVATION OF RESONANT-TUNNELING THROUGH LOCALIZED CONTINUUM STATES IN ELECTRON-WAVE INTERFERENCE DIODES

A 13 layer aperiodic semiconductor superlattice electron wave interference filter, designed with thin-film optical interference filter techniques by using the analogies between electromagnetic wave propagation in dielectrics and ballistic electron wave propagation in semiconductors, was realized in the GaAs/AlGaAs material system. Current-voltage measurements at 300 and 77 K show negative differential resistance peaks (with peak-to-valley current ratios of 1.25 and 3.9, respectively) that represent observation of tunneling through an above barrier localized quasibound state. We show that electron wave interference devices could compete with resonant tunneling diodes as high frequency oscillators based on dc device characteristics and theoretical subpicosecond tunneling traversal times.