Strong coupling between electrons and phonons in heavily doped semiconductors impedes, in general, investigation of hot carrier phenomena in the material. Investigations of hot electron electromotive force arising in symmetrically and asymmetrically shaped structures of heavily doped n-GaAs under microwave radiation are presented in this paper. Mesas of MBE grown n-GaAs layers with neck shaped down to submicron dimensions revealed strong dependence of voltage sensitivity of the structure on the size of the neck. Slight frequency dependence of voltage sensitivity of the microwave diodes with both symmetrically and asymmetrically shaped n-n^+ junctions was observed experimentally in K_a frequency range, which coincides well with theoretical predictions.
In this paper we propose a microwave detector based on a AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs structure. Its operation relies on non-uniform carrier heating of the two-dimensional electron gas in the microwave electric fields which is a result of the asymmetric shape of the device fabricated on the base of pseudomorphic modulation doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs structure. The voltage sensitivity of the device at nitrogen temperature is 38 V/W for 10 GHz radiations and is higher compared to that of modulation doped AlGaAs/GaAs of the same configuration.
Properties of microwave detectors of various design on the base of MBE grown GaAs and AlGaAs structures are discussed in this paper: simple asymmetrically shaped structures with heavily doped GaAs and AlGaAs layers of nanometric thickness as well as diodes with two-dimensional electron gas layers. Novel models of the detectors with partially gated two-dimensional electron gas layer as well as with small area GaAs/AlGaAs heterojuction are discussed to demonstrate different ways to increase the voltage sensitivity of the detectors of electromagnetic radiation in GHz-THz frequency range.
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