Electron tunneling device

Abstract

Tunneling electronic devices responsive to infrared and far infrared radiation are formed by overlapping deposits which define ultra-thin dielectric layers (less than about 10 Angstrom thickness) between metal layers, and contact areas of the order of 1 micron.sup.2 or less. Preferred embodiments feature operation in the negative impedance region, particularly using multibarrier structures or operating at low temperature with both metals superconductors, and incorporation of the same in oscillators and multivibrators. Other embodiments feature two or more such devices in the form of triodes having positive feedback achieved by radiative or inductive coupling using integrally deposited line structures as the respective antennas or inductors. Similar deposited antennas, e.g. dipole antennas, are employed to produce radiative outputs from the devices achieving, e.g. tunable sources of radiation in the far infrared or infrared. The junctions are integrated with thin film structures designed to introduce capacitance as well as inductance components for appropriate impedance as parts of lumped circuit elements at far IR and IR frequencies. These enable tank circuits to be formed resonating in these regions. Loop constructions are also shown in which selected overlapped regions are sized to form tunneling junctions and other overlapped regions are sized or otherwise constructed to avoid non-linear effects. A frequency dividing network is shown enabling infrared or far infrared frequencies to be subdivided by a series of coupled oscillators constructed as above. Nonlinearities of the junction and production of reactive components in the junction, i.e. for impedance matching purposes, as with the antennas, are achieved by appropriate selection of the input frequencies relative to quantized modes of the dielectric layer. By appropriate selection, the variety of equivalent circuits can be achieved appropriate to such matching. Addition of selected impurities to the dielectric layer can serve to introduce the quantized modes in the far IR and IR and to enhance the scattering effects upon the AC signal in these regions.039474341 c 6 9-(P-phenylazoanilino)-7-methyl-1H-imidazo4,5-f]quinolines

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.