Piezotunnel current in GaAs p-n junctions

A calculation is made of the sensitivity to shear deformations of the tunnel current in tunnel p-n junctions of gallium arsenide. The approximation of high hole energies (¦E-E_v¦) was used in the calculation, where is the energy splitting of the branches of light and heavy holes at the center of the Brillouin zone produced by the action of shear deformations. The effect of hydrostatic and uniaxial pressure on the tunnel current with the p-n junction oriented parallel to the (100) and (111) crystallographic planes was studied experimentally. Satisfactory agreement was obtained between the calculated and experimental values of the coefficients of the piezotunnel current.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 134–139, March, 1977.In conclusion, the authors express their gratitude to S. S. Shchegol' for help in fabricating the expitaxial p-n junctions and to G. F. Karavaev for a discussion of the work.