Study of microwave responsivity of GaN planar nanodiodes and HEMTs

Summary:
In the last decade, large efforts have been focused on the development of sensitive zero-bias detectors at room temperature in the increasingly attractive terahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The use of III-V high mobility semiconductors is widespread for microwave applications, not only using the standard GaAs Schottky barrier diode technology but also high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on InGaAs or InAs.
The voltage and current responsivities are then computed as the ratio between the output signal (voltage or current) and the injected power. Among the different architectures of electronic devices, here we explore two devices based on an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction:
- Self-Switching Diodes (SSDs): By tailoring the boundary of a narrow channel by means of two L-shaped trenches, this device provides, based on surface and electrostatic effects, a strong nonlinear DC curve.