Temperature dependence of electron transfer in coupled quantum wells

Abstract

We report on the temperature dependence of electron transfer between coupled quantum wells in a voltage tunable two-color quantum-well infrared photodetector (QWIP). The detection peak of this QWIP switches from 7.1 μm under positive bias to 8.6 μm under negative bias for temperatures T⩽40 K. For T⩾40 K, the 7.1 μm peak is present under both bias polarities and increases significantly with T while the 8.6 μm peak decreases correspondingly. We determine the temperature dependence of electron densities in the two QWs from the detector absorption spectra that are deduced using corrugated QWIPs and find that electron transfer is efficient only when thermionic emission is not significant.