Effect of the emitter spacer level on the peak current of resonant tunneling diode

The dependence of the peak current in the I – V characteristic of a resonant tunneling diode on the emitter spacer thickness has been investigated by numerically solving the Schrödinger equation. This dependence has pronounced maxima in which the peak current greatly exceeds that in minima. The mechanism of the formation of maxima has been revealed. These maxima are caused by the overlap of the emitter spacer level and the resonant level of the quantum well. The influence of electron-electron interaction on the effect has been studied; it is shown that the interaction barely affects the peak current in the forward bias direction and somewhat decreases it in the reverse direction.