Absolute Negative Conductivity and Spontaneous Current Generation in Semiconductor Superlattices with Hot Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
We study electron transport through a semiconductor superlattice subject to an electric field parallel to and a magnetic field perpendicular to the growth axis. Using a single miniband, semiclassical balance equation model with both elastic and inelastic scattering, we find that (1) the current-voltage characteristic becomes multistable in a large magnetic field; and (2) ``hot'' electrons display novel features in their current-voltage characteristics, including absolute negative conductivity (ANC) and, for sufficiently strong magnetic fields, a spontaneous dc current at zero bias. We discuss possible experimental situations providing the necessary hot electrons to observe the predicted ANC and spontaneous dc current generation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9910042,
title = {Absolute Negative Conductivity and Spontaneous Current Generation in Semiconductor Superlattices with Hot Electrons},
author = {Ethan H. Cannon and Feodor V. Kusmartsev and Kirill N. Alekseev and David K. Campbell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9910042},
year = {2009}
}