Electroluminescence from bipolar resonant tunneling diodes

The incorporation of an AlAs/GaAs resonant tunneling structure inside a GaAs p-n junction leads to strong quantum-well electroluminescence originating from electron and hole tunneling into the resonant tunneling structure. A large peak-to-valley ratio of 10:1 in the electroluminescence intensity is achieved at the electron resonance at 4.2 K, which decreases but persists (1.45:1) at room temperature. Resonant tunneling of holes is also apparent from the electroluminescence at low temperature.