Effect of low and staggered gap quantum wells inserted in GaAs tunnel junctions. (16th March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Louarn, K; Claveau, Y; Marigo-Lombart, L; Fontaine, C; Arnoult, A; Piquemal, F; Bounouh, A; Cavassilas, N; Almuneau, G
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 51:Number 14(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-03-16
• Subjects: tunnel junction -- molecular beam epitaxy -- multi-junction solar cell -- interband tunneling -- quantum well -- photovoltaics; Physics -- Periodicals; 530
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aab1de
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3727

Abstract

Abstract: In this article, we investigate the impact of the insertion of either a type I InGaAs or a type II InGaAs/GaAsSb quantum well on the performances of MBE-grown GaAs tunnel junctions (TJs). The devices are designed and simulated using a quantum transport model based on the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and a 6-band k.p Hamiltonian. We experimentally observe significant improvements of the peak tunneling current density on both heterostructures with a 460-fold increase for a moderately doped GaAs TJ when the InGaAs QW is inserted at the junction interface, and a 3-fold improvement on a highly doped GaAs TJ integrating a type II InGaAs/GaAsSb QW. Thus, the simple insertion of staggered band lineup heterostructures enables us to reach a tunneling current well above the kA cm −2 range, equivalent to the best achieved results for Si-doped GaAs TJs, implying very interesting potential for TJ-based components, such as multi-junction solar cells, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and tunnel-field effect transistors.