Chaos in resonant-tunneling superlattices

Abstract

Spatio-temporal chaos is predicted to occur in n-doped semiconductor superlattices with sequential resonant tunneling as their main charge transport mechanism. Under dc voltage bias, undamped time-dependent oscillations of the current (due to the motion and recycling of electric field domain walls) have been observed in recent experiments. Chaos is the result of forcing this natural oscillation by means of an appropriate external microwave signal.Comment: 3 pages, LaTex, RevTex, 3 uuencoded figures (1.2M) are available upon request from [email protected], to appear in Phys.Rev.