Thomas–Fermi approach to resonant tunneling in δ‐doped diodes

We study resonant tunneling in B‐δ‐doped diodes grown by Si‐molecular beam epitaxy. A Thomas–Fermi approach is used to obtain the conduction‐band modulation. Using a scalar Hamiltonian within the effective‐mass approximation we demonstrate that the occurrence of negative differential resistance (NDR) only involves conduction‐band states, whereas interband tunneling effects seem to be negligible. Our theoretical results are in very good agreement with recent experimental observations of NDR in this type of diode.