Theory of the vertical transport through one, two and three dimensionally confined quantum wells

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the vertical transport of electrons through one, two, and three dimensionally confined quantum wells between three dimensional contacts. The resonant tunelling currents for the usual double-barrier structure, the quantum “wire” and the quantum “dot” have very different peak shapes. These peak shapes can be explained simply in terms of the energy and momentum conservation involved in each geometry. The simple picture is confirmed by numerical calculations for each case.