Dynamics of heterostructure hot-electron diodes

The transport properties of heterostructure hot-electron diodes are examined by Monte Carlo simulations. The transient analysis indicates that the limiting time constant for electronic switching from low to high conduction is of the order of the device transit time provided that tunneling- and thermionic-emission time constants associated with the formation of accumulation layers are of shorter duration; since the average electron velocities are of the order of 3×10⁷ cm/s for typical device dimensions of 1000 Å, it follows that picosecond switching times should be possible for such device feature sizes. The effects of electron-electron interactions have also been considered; their influence on diode switching and on the switching of heterolayer devices in general are discussed.