Intrinsic bistability in the electroluminescence spectrum and current-voltage characteristics of triple-barrier p-i-n resonant tunneling devices

The electroluminescence spectrum and current-voltage characteristics of a forward biased triple-barrier p-i-n diode are investigated. The thin AlAs central barrier provides strong coupling between the two GaAs quantum wells. EL arises from the GaAs contact layers and both spatially direct and indirect recombination in the quantum wells. The latter line is much the stronger and shows a marked red shift with increasing bias. Two electron and two hole resonant peaks are observed in I(V) and in the intensity-bias plots of the EL emission lines. A pronounced intrinsic bistability is observed in both I(V) and the EL spectra. The effect of magnetic field on the EL spectra is investigated