in: Proceedings of the 9th Int. Conf. on Hot Carriers in Semiconductors, Chicago, 1995, ed. by J. P. Leburton (Plenum, New York, 1996), pp. 177-181.

OSCILLATORY INSTABILITIES AND FIELD DOMAIN FORMATION IN IMPERFECT SUPERLATTICES

E. Schöll, G. Schwarz, M. Patra, F. Prengel, and A. Wacker,

Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin,
Hardenbergstrasse 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

We theoretically investigate vertical high-field transport in semiconductor superlattices, which exhibit self-generated current oscillations and the formation of stable stationary electric field domains depending on the available carrier density. We demonstrate that this behavior is strongly affected by growth-related imperfections like fluctuations of the doping density, the well and the barrier widths. We propose to use this as a novel noninvasive method to detect growth-related disorder in superlattices.

last update: Aug 26, 1996