HOT-ELECTRON DISTRIBUTION IN THE QUANTUM-WELL OF A RESONANT TUNNELING DIODE

The incoherent electrons in the quantum well play an important role in resonant tunnelling diodes. The hot-electron distribution, characterized by the electron temperature T(e) and the effective Fermi energy-mu-e, is proposed to describe the non-equilibrium distribution of the incoherent electrons in the quantum well. These two parameters, T(e) and mu-e, can be uniquely determined by the energy conservation law and particle conservation law. We have also calculated the current density tunnelling through the diode. Our results demonstrate that the current peak-to-valley ratio degrades as scattering in the quantum well increases, which is consistent with the current experimental results.