Thermionic emission perpendicular to bulk and multiquantum AlxGa1−xInP barriers

Abstract

A study on thermally activated currents across the bulk and multiquantum barrier (MQB) AlxGa1−xInP∕GaInP has been carried out and compared to experimental results from a series of n-i-n diodes over a range of temperatures. By considering the true quantum mechanical nature of the barriers, in contrast to the classical Richardson formalism, it is found that the alloy crossover strongly affects the transport properties of the material. The measured prefactor is found to decrease as Al content is increased. When applied to the MQB structures, the existing model fails to capture the experimental results.