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Spikes in the Current Self‐Oscillations of Doped GaAs/AlAs Superlattices
Author(s) -
Kantelhardt J. W.,
Grahn H. T.,
Ploog K. H.,
Moscoso M.,
Perales A.,
Bonilla L. L.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3951(199711)204:1<500::aid-pssb500>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - superlattice , oscillation (cell signaling) , condensed matter physics , physics , quantum tunnelling , electric field , charge (physics) , current (fluid) , chemistry , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , thermodynamics
In doped, weakly coupled superlattices, current self‐oscillations occur due to a recycling motion of a charge monopole, which forms the boundary between two electric field domains. In addition to these fundamental oscillations, the current also contains a high‐frequency modulation in form of spikes, which are caused by the tunneling process of the charge monopole over a single superlattice period. The number of spikes within one fundamental oscillation can therefore serve as a measure for the number of superlattice periods, which are involved in the recycling motion. Spiking may reflect non‐stationary tunneling effects for sufficiently large applied electric fields.