Phonon-assisted transport in double-barrier resonant-tunneling structures

Grein, C. H.; Runge, E. F.; Ehrenreich, Hannelore

doi:10.1103/physrevb.47.12590

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In the heterostructures consisting of quantum wells the EPI on the tunneling current have been extensively studied by many authors. [17][18][19][20][21] Because of the small strength of EPI in quantum wells, the effect of EPI on the tunneling current was studied with a perturbative method. Only a few literatures discussed the tunneling current through QD's including the electron-phonon interaction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunneling current through a quantum dot with strong electron-phonon interaction

Kuo

Chang

2002

Phys. Rev. B

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The tunneling current through a quantum dot͑QD͒ in the presence of local electron-phonon interaction ͑EPI͒ and intradot Coulomb repulsion is studied theoretically for arbitrary strength of EPI. It is found that the renormalization of the intradot Coulomb repulsion and QD level position leads to intriguing effects on the tunneling current. The interplay of Coulomb blockade and phonon-assisted tunneling processes gives rise to a rich variety of tunneling current behavior.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunneling current through a quantum dot with strong electron-phonon interaction

Kuo

Chang

2002

Phys. Rev. B

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“…It is known that the broad satellite peak in tunnel current above the resonant peak is attributable to phonon-assisted tunneling involving the emission of longitudinal optic (LO) phonons [2], and this has been confirmed by theoretical analysis [3] and further studied experimentally by a number of other authors [4]. Assisted tunneling associated with acoustic phonons is also assumed to take place [5,6], and the current will also be affected by changes in electron distribution caused by a rise in electron temperature.In this Letter, we report the first measurements of assisted tunneling caused by nonequilibrium acoustic phonons.The sample is a GaAs/(A1Q4Gap6)A1 double barrier resonant tunneling device (DBRTD) in which barriers of (A1Ga)As are located on either side of a GaAs layer, which acts as a quantum well. The results provide information on the potential variation across the DBRTD and demonstrate this type of device could have value as a phonon spectrometer.…”

mentioning

confidence: 86%

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confidence: 86%

Nonequilibrium Acoustic Phonon-Assisted Tunneling in GaAs/(AlGa)As Double Barrier Devices

et al. 1995

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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We report the first observations of nonequilibrium phonon-assisted tunneling in a double barrier resonant tunneling device in GaAs. The change in tunnel current produced by the phonons occurs at a bias voltage, which depends on the phonon energy showing that the device has potential as a phonon spectrometer.PACS numbers: 73.40.Gk There has been considerable progress in the understanding of resonant tunneling structures including double barrier structures and an increasing interest in their potential as devices [1]. Somewhat less attention, however, has been given to the component of the tunnel current arising from inelastic phonon-assisted tunneling. It is known that the broad satellite peak in tunnel current above the resonant peak is attributable to phonon-assisted tunneling involving the emission of longitudinal optic (LO) phonons [2], and this has been confirmed by theoretical analysis [3] and further studied experimentally by a number of other authors [4]. Assisted tunneling associated with acoustic phonons is also assumed to take place [5,6], and the current will also be affected by changes in electron distribution caused by a rise in electron temperature.In this Letter, we report the first measurements of assisted tunneling caused by nonequilibrium acoustic phonons.The sample is a GaAs/(A1Q4Gap6)A1 double barrier resonant tunneling device (DBRTD) in which barriers of (A1Ga)As are located on either side of a GaAs layer, which acts as a quantum well. The results provide information on the potential variation across the DBRTD and demonstrate this type of device could have value as a phonon spectrometer. The sample used (NU165) was grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a (100) semi-insulating substrate at a temperature of 630 'C.The substrate was Cr free and grown by the liquidencapsulated Czochralski method. The structure consists of two 5.5 nm thick Alo4Ga06As barriers, separated by a 5 nm thick GaAs well. The barriers are separated from the doped n+ GaAs contact regions by a 2.5 nm thick GaAs spacer layer. The doping on each side varies from -1 X 10' cm at the edge of the spacer layer to 2 X 10' cm 50 nm away from the edge. When a bias voltage is applied, accumulation occurs on one side resulting in a two-dimensional emitter, while the collector remains three dimensional as shown schematically in the inset to Fig. 1. The layers were etched down to a 3 && 80 p, m mesa, and contacts were made to emitter and collector. The back face of the 400 p, m substrate was polished, and a 600 X 60 p, m 600 400 200 0' I 0.2 0.4 0.6 v(v) 0.8 FIG. 1. The current-voltage characteristics I(V) and dI/dV of the DBRTD at 4.2 K. The arrow shows the satellite peak attributed to LO phonon-assisted tunneling. The inset gives the energy band diagram of the DBRTD showing a phonon-assisted transition. constantan heater evaporated opposite the mesa using back-to-front alignment. The current-voltage characteristics of the DBRTD, I(V) and dI/dV, are shown in Fig. 1. Since both energy and in-plane wave vector k~~a re conserved, the resonan...

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“…Resonant tunneling is a purely quantum effect whereby electrons pass through structures made of potential wells and barriers with unit or near-unit transmission probabilities if they enter the quantum well at the particular energies of the structure's bound states. Following the initial experimental observation of satellite peaks of these transmission resonances [1], a large volume of theoretical work [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26] has focused on the effects of phonon scattering on the electronic tunneling. Early on, it was recognized that perturbative treatments tend to miss the essential feedback effects between elastic and inelastic channels which lead to these satellite features in the electronic transmission [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recent works have shown that within a tight-binding description these features are further enhanced [18], and phonon bands can form [22,23]. Furthermore, theoretical models have been generalized to include the effects of the three-dimensional environment [19,21], non-equilibrium dynamics [20], and finite temperatures [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron-phonon bound states and impurity band formation in quantum wells

Oliveira

Haas

2009

Phys. Rev. B

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A generalized propagation matrix method is used to study how scattering off local Einstein phonons affects resonant electron transmission through quantum wells. In particular, the parity and the number of the phonon mediated satellite resonances are found to depend on the available scattering channels. For a large number of phonon channels, the formation of low-energy impurity bands is observed. Furthermore, an effective theory is developed which accurately describes the phonon generated sidebands for sufficiently small electron-phonon coupling. Finally, the currentvoltage characteristics caused by phonon assisted transmission satellites are discussed for a specific double barrier geometry.

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Phonon-assisted transport in double-barrier resonant-tunneling structures

Cited by 22 publications

References 37 publications

Tunneling current through a quantum dot with strong electron-phonon interaction

Tunneling current through a quantum dot with strong electron-phonon interaction

Nonequilibrium Acoustic Phonon-Assisted Tunneling in GaAs/(AlGa)As Double Barrier Devices

Electron-phonon bound states and impurity band formation in quantum wells

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