A semiconductor GMR device [InAlAs-InAs]

Reports on a narrow-gap semiconductor interband-tunneling device whose magnetoresistance varies more than five orders of magnitude at 2K. The operational principle of the novel GMR device is based upon the magnetic field modulation of the tunnel barrier thickness thereby changing the tunnel resistance of the new version of "Esaki diode" characteristics. The depletion layer thickness, i.e., tunnel barrier thickness, is determined by the difference between the bottom of the Landau level and the Fermi level of the collector (p-InAs).