Photohole-induced resonant tunneling of electrons in selectively etched small area GaAs/AlAs double barrier diodes

Abstract The influence of light on the low temperature I ( V ) characteristics of selectively etched small area resonant tunneling diodes (RTD) has been investigated. These diodes have physical dimensions down to 0.5 μm and their design allows easy optical access. Under illumination new sub-threshold peaks appear in I ( V ). These peaks are also observed in large area diodes, and are found to be strongly influenced by applying a magnetic field either parallel or perpendicular to the plane of the barriers. We show that our results cannot be explained in terms of resonant tunneling of photo-excited holes and propose an explanation based on the Coulombic electron-hole interaction.