Nonequilibrium electron transport in heterostructure bipolar transistors probed by magnetic field

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We show that the static current‐voltage characteristics of a heterojunction bipolar transistor are dramatically influenced by application of a magnetic field. Nonequilibrium base transport has a strong influence on collector/emitter breakdown voltage, VCEB. With a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the direction of the injected emitter current VCEB increases from 2.6 V at 0 T to 8 V at 8 T. In the same device with a magnetic field applied parallel to the current flow, the current gain increases by a factor of 2 over the same magnetic field range. Transistors which exploit nonequilibrium base and collector transport have qualitatively different behavior compared to conventional devices which use diffusive and drift‐diffusive transport.