Resonant tunneling through double barriers, perpendicular quantum transport phenomena in superlattices and their device applications.
01 January 1986
New results on the physics of tunneling in quantum well heterostructures and its device applications are discussed. Following a general review of the field in the introduction, in the second section resonant tunneling through double barriers is investigated. Recent conflicting interpretations of this effect in terms of a Fabri-Perot mechanism or sequential tunneling are reconciled via an analysis of scattering. It is shown that the ratio of the intrinsic resonance width to the total scattering width (collision broadening) determines which of the two mechanism controls resonant tunneling. The role of symmetry is quantitatively analyzed and two recently proposed resonant tunneling transistor structures are discussed.