Tunneling through a GaN/AlN-based double-barrier resonant tunneling heterostructure

The results of the fabrication and study of a double-barrier resonant tunneling structure grown on the basis of GaN and AlN wide-gap materials on a (0001)-oriented sapphire substrate are given. It is shown that, at voltages of ∼3 V, the current-voltage characteristics of resonant tunneling diode samples exhibit a region of negative differential conductivity that disappears upon multiple cyclic measurements. It is also shown that the reversal of sign of the applied voltage restores the initial shape of the current-voltage characteristics and an increase in the temperature of the structure from room temperature to 200°C yields irreversible degradation of the device and a shift of the region of negative differential conductivity to lower voltages