Tunnel current oscillations in a GaAs/AlAs double-barrier heterostructure
Belyaev A. E., Vitusevich S. A., Konakova R. V., Figielski T., Makosa A., Wosinski T., Kravchenko L. N.
A fine structure (oscillations) of the tunnel current in resonant, tunneling, double-barrier quantum heterostructures based on AlAs/GaAs/AlAs with a wide spacer layer was observed. The period of the oscillations is close to hc^e, where hu^Q is the longitudinal optic phonon energy in GaAs. A model is proposed to explain such a LO phonon-related oscillatory structure in the tunneling devices. According to this model, the carriers injected from the n+ emitter lose energy gained in a strong electric field as a result of the emission of LO phonons in the accumulation layer on the emitter side or in the depletion region adjacent to the collector barrier in the dependence on where the spacer layer is situated. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.