Development of millimeter and terahertz wave ranges is one of the main objectives of modern highfrequency electronic devices. However, there are not many active elements able to operate in these ranges. Transferred electron devices (TED) still remain a more widespread compact electromagnetic wave sources. But oscillation efficiency of TED operating in the submillimeter wave range is small and, in most cases, generation becomes impossible. Difficulties in obtaining maximum frequencies are mainly determined by the electron transition time from the upper valley to the lower one. The aim of the work is to investigate reduction of the transition time problem by using band to band impact ionization. The paper deals with charge transport in short diodes with InzGa1-zAs-based graded band structure with the active region length of 0.64 m. Doping concentration in the n-type active region was 10 16 …8•10 16 cm-3. Ensemble Monte-Carlo Technique is carried out to describe the charge carrier dynamics in the device. A three-valley conduction band and heavy hole band ГV1 are taken into account. It is shown a possibility of using localized impact ionization as an energy relaxation mechanism. Correlation between the number of acts of impact ionization and decrease in electron number in the upper va lleys are demonstrated. Oscillation efficiency of the diodes is calculated. It is shown that impact ionization can lead to increase in the maximum generation frequency. The proposed way of improving frequency properties due to modification of electron transfer near the anode contact can be applied to short structures and allows maximum generation frequencies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.