Investigation of Narrow Band-Gap Semiconductors for Tunnetts

Abstract

The potential of abrupt junction TUNNETT diodes made from narrow band gap semiconductor for millimeter wave frequency are explored theoretically. The alloy compound Hg1-xCdxTe which has a tunable band gap is chosen in this study. Neglecting impact ionization, an efficiency of 2.5% is obtained at 94 GHz in the simulation with a band-gap of 0.41 eV. We suggest that narrow band gap semiconductors have good potential for fabricating diodes operating in the TUNNETT or MITATT modes for millimeter wave applications.