A current-controlled negative-resistance effect in indium antimonide

1 January 1966

journal article
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices

Vol. ED-13 (1) , 117-121
https://doi.org/10.1109/t-ed.1966.15644

Abstract

A thin wafer of P-InSb exhibits a current-controlled negative resistance between nonsymmetrical ohmic contacts on opposite sides of the wafer. The small contact on one side of the wafer is made positive relative to the large contact on the other side. Most effective samples had small contact diameters one to four times the slab thickness. The negative resistance was present up to a temperature of 210°K for material having 2.5 × 10¹⁴/cm³acceptor concentration at 77°K. A magnetic field perpendicular to the current flow direction reduced the value of the maximum negative resistance and extended the range of bias current yielding negative resistance. Samples under 0.005 inch thick yielded negative resistance when operated continuously, for the doping of 2.5 × 10¹⁴/cm³, but thicker samples yielded negative resistance only in lower duty cycle operation. Microwave radiation lines presumably at harmonics of oscillation in the bias circuit were measured. Finally, a proposed mechanism, dependent on impact ionization, is used to predict operation to a transit-time limited frequency of, say, 8000 Mc/s for a sample whose thickness is 0.0025 inch.

Keywords

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:

A new negative resistance effect in indium antimonide
Proceedings of the IEEE, 1965
A Double Injection Negative Resistance in p-Type Indium Antimonide at 77°K
Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 1964
Microwave oscillations of current in III–V semiconductors
Solid State Communications, 1963
Some Observations of Growing Oscillations in Electron-Hole Plasma
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