Electric-field-induced resonant tunneling lifetime in semiconductor multibarrier systems

Abstract

A study on the variation in resonant tunneling lifetime (RTL) with the applied electric field is presented for the GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs periodic multibarrier systems (MBSs). The variation shows a contrasting behavior of lifetime for quasiresonant states situated at the miniband edge and those for well inside the miniband. For fields larger than 500 kV/m, the RTL corresponding to the midband state increases with the increase in electric field, whereas it decreases with the increase in field for the states near the miniband edges. The existence of the characteristic field and the characteristic lifetime that represent the synchronization of carrier velocity associated with all the quasiresonant states is an interesting outcome of the present theoretical investigation in ballistic transport of carriers through a MBS. This synchronization results in the maximum average escape rate through the system. It has also been shown that the characteristic field corresponds to the formation of localized partial Wannier–Stark ladder states in the miniband.