title: Absolute negative conductivity and spontaneous current generation in semiconductor superlattices with hot electrons
abstract: We study transport through a semiconductor superlattice with an electric field parallel to and a magnetic field perpendicular to the growth axis. Using a semiclassical balance equation model with elastic and inelastic scattering, we find that (1) the current-voltage characteristic becomes multistable in a large magnetic field and (2) "hot" electrons display novel features in their current-voltage characteristics, including absolute negative conductivity and a spontaneous dc current at zero bias. We discuss experimental situations providing hot electrons to observe these effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Cannon
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Kusmartsev
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Alekseev
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Campbell