Effect of electron-optical phonon interaction on resonant tunneling in coupled quantum wells

Abstract

The spatial distribution of the wave functions for electrons in a coupled-quantum-well system of GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs with triple barriers is discussed. Within the framework of the dielectric continuum model, the dispersion relations of interface optical phonon modes are given. Furthermore, the interaction between an electron and optical phonons and the ternary mixed crystal effect in these structures are investigated in detail. The optical phonon-assisted tunneling (PAT) is studied using the Fermi golden rule to obtain numerically the PAT currents. The results reveal that the interface optical phonons are more important than the confined longitudinal optical phonons. Only one PAT peak does appear when the middle barrier is wide enough or its Al component is high enough, and the peak moves to the higher applied voltage direction, whereas two PAT peaks do appear when the middle barrier is narrow enough or its Al component is low enough.