Study on the current bistability and hysteresis in resonant-tunneling structures

We present a time-dependent quantum-kinetic study for the non-equilibrium electron transport properties of double-barrier resonant-tunneling devices. The approach is based on a self-consistent solution of Wigner equation and Poisson equation. We find intrinsic current fluctuations around the current turning point. These instabilities lead to three current irreversible regions, two current hystereses and one small inverse current change in the valley position of current, for the forward and backward bias sweep. The bias step applied on the device affects the width of each current irreversible regions and the current peak height of the middle region.