On the differential conductivity of semiconductor superlattices

The nature of negative differential conductivity (NDC) of a semiconductor superlattice was studied. It is shown that the presence of regions with a negative effective mass in a Brillouin miniband is not necessary for NDC to set in. NDC exists even in superlattices with parabolic and superquadratic miniband dispersion relations, where the electron effective mass is positive everywhere and, in this case, is fully determined by Bragg reflections of the electron. When the electron Bragg reflections are suppressed by optical phonons, NDC can disappear completely. NDC is retained only if there is a sizable region with a negative effective mass in the miniband.