Effect of transverse constant electric field on the electron interference effects related to the under-barrier penetration of quantum-mechanical current density in 2D semiconductor nanostructures

Abstract

The effect of transverse constant electric field F on the under-barrier penetration of the local quantum-mechanical current density in a 2D semiconductor structure is theoretically studied. The structure represents two quantum wells with identical widths that are sequentially located along the propagation direction of electron wave: the first well has the rectangular cross section, and the second well exhibits a semi-infinite rectangular potential barrier with height V0 that is modified by the transverse electric field. When an electron wave whose energy is less than resulting height of the potential barrier Veff is incident from the first well on the barrier under certain conditions, the coordinate-dependent exponentially decaying penetration of the local quantum-mechanical current density may take place under the barrier due to the interference of electron waves in the nanostructure. It is demonstrated that the penetration parameters depend on field strength F.