Development and Study of the p–i–n GaAs/AlGaAs Tunnel Diodes for Multijunction Converters of High-Power Laser Radiation

The creation of connecting tunnel diodes with a peak tunneling-current density higher than the density of the short-circuit current of photoactive p – n junctions is an important task in the development of multijunction photoconverters (III–V) of high-power optical radiation. Basing on numerical simulation of the J–U characteristics of tunnel diodes, a method is proposed for increasing the peak tunneling-current density by including a thin undoped i -type layer with a thickness of several nanometers between degenerate layers of the tunnel diode. The p – i – n -GaAs/Al 0.2 Ga 0.8 As structures of the connecting tunnel diodes with a peak tunneling-current density of up to 200 A/cm 2 are grown by molecular-beam epitaxy.