Observation of sequential excited-to-excited states resonant tunneling in weakly coupled superlattices with wide quantum wells

The sequential excited-to-excited state resonant tunneling effect was observed in weakly coupled long-period superlattices resulting in additional negative differential conductivity resonances in multistable current–voltage characteristics. The results obtained show the evidence of the highly nonequilibrium distribution of carriers over subbands with energies below the optical phonon energy in superlattices. A new type of electric field domains, due to resonant tunneling between excited subbands in adjacent wells, is considered, and experimental evidencies of such a domain's existence are given.     

Resonant tunneling transport through GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices in strong tilted magnetic field

An analysis is presented of the transverse resonant tunneling transport through GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices due to tunneling between Landau levels in quantum wells in a strong tilted magnetic field. A high tunneling rate is demonstrated between Landau levels with Δn ≠ 0 in a magnetic field with a nonzero in-plane component. This leads to substantial broadening and shift of the tunneling resonance and significant changes in the current-voltage characteristics of superlattices. The predicted behavior of the current-voltage characteristics of superlattices in tilted magnetic fields is demonstrated experimentally.     

Resonant tunneling in weakly coupled GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices in a transverse magnetic field: A probe of electronic distribution function

A method is proposed to get information about carrier distribution function in superlattices and multiple quantum-well structures from the analysis of the vertical transport experiments in a transverse magnetic field. The method was applied to the GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices with wide quantum wells in strong (B=0–7 T) magnetic fields. It was shown that the distribution function of electron is nonequilibrium Boltzmann-like, with electronic temperature T=10–20 K.     

Escape time model for the current self-oscillation frequencies. in weakly coupled semiconductor superlattices

A semiclassical model was developed to predict the frequencies of current self-oscillations in weakly coupled semiconductor superlattices (SLs). The calculated frequency is derived from the classical round trip time in one well and the tunneling probability through the barrier, using the well and barrier width, effective masses and band offsets as well as the resulting energies of the sub- and minibands as input parameters. For all SLs, the measured frequency dependence on the sample parameters can be well described by our model. For weakly (strongly) coupled SLs, the calculated frequencies are somewhat above (below) the observed ones. The changeover from one behavior to the other occurs for SLs with miniband widths of a few meV. Received: 2 August 2000 / Accepted: 27 October 2000 / Published online: 28 February 2001     

Domain boundary instability in weakly coupled GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices

Self-sustained oscillations of the current with a frequency ranging from 0.7 to 3.6 MHz have been detected in weakly coupled GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice at 4.2 K. A study of the static and dynamic characteristics of the structure showed that the spontaneous oscillations arise in the local region of the superlattice, restricted by a size of the domain boundary expansion. The oscillations arise in the negative differential conductivity regions due to the periodic coupling and decoupling of subbands in adjacent quantum wells, forming the expanded domain boundary. We suggest that the spatio-temporal oscillations of the domain boundary should be considered as oscillations of an ensemble of several strongly phase-coupled oscillators. Each oscillator is a couple of two adjacent quantum wells, which operates as a single resonant tunneling diode.     

Space charge buildup in tight-binding superlattices induced by electron sequential tunneling

High-field domain formation in semiconductor structures with tight-binding GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices has been studied using capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. Accumulation of the electrons in the quantum wells during the extension of the high-field domain through the superlattice as a result of increasing bias is detected as a sharp increase in the capacitance. The comparison between the C-V and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics is discussed in terms of the extension of the high-field domain through the entire superlattice. Measurements performed at 77 K show clear oscillations in the I-V and the C-V characteristics, from which the space charge accumulation in the superlattice can be calculated.     

Acoustic analogue of electronic BLOCH oscillations and resonant Zener tunneling in ultrasonic superlattices

We demonstrate the existence of Bloch oscillations of acoustic fields in sound propagation through a superlattice of water cavities and layers of methyl methacrylate. To obtain the acoustic equivalent of a Wannier-Stark ladder, we employ a set of cavities with different thicknesses. Bloch oscillations are observed as time-resolved oscillations of transmission in a direct analogy to electronic Bloch oscillations in biased semiconductor superlattices. Moreover, for a particular gradient of cavity thicknesses, an overlap of two acoustic minibands occurs, which results in resonant Zener-like transmission enhancement.     

Superluminal optical soliton via resonant tunneling in coupled quantum dots

We demonstrate the formation of superluminal optical soliton in an symmetry semiconductor double quantum dot (QD) driven coherently by a weak pulsed laser using the tunnel coupling. It is shown that the group velocity of the soliton can be larger than the vacuum light speed c, i.e., superluminal soliton can be produced. The results obtained can be used for the development of new types of nanoelectronic devices for realizing high-speed optical modulation and rapidly responding quantum switching.     

A lateral resonant tunneling FET

A lateral resonant tunneling FET (RTFET) is proposed. The RTFET has three closely spaced gates. The outer gates control the barrier heights, and the inner gate controls the potential of the quantum well. These gates are capacitively coupled to the barriers and the well, therefore, the gate currents are very small. Modeling and computer simulation show that the RTFET should have an improved peak-to-valley ratio, narrower current peak widths, and more uniform distribution of peak currents than that of a conventional resonant tunneling diode with the same structure. Furthermore, a unique feature of this device is that the barrier height can be adjusted, which allows the current peak, the peak-to-valley ratio, and the peak positions to be tuned.     

Supernarrow saturated absorption resonances in weakly coupled two resonant optical cavities

The advantages of the weakly coupled two resonant optical cavities (hereinafter referred to as three-mirror cavity) used for observation of the supernarrow saturated absorption resonances are shown. Among these advantages we can name: (a) the possibility to control the intensity in the cavity with the inside absorbing cell which is important when the gain and absorption saturation parameters differ significantly; (b) the resonances observation from the ‘passive’ side of the three-mirror cavity permits us to decrease drastically the influence of the reflected signal from the detector; (c) if instead of the absorbing cell an active system is put in (gain plus absorption), it is possible by tuning the operating mode of the active interferometer to obtain many-fold gain of the supernarrow resonance amplitude. Received: 11 January 2000 / Revised version: 20 June 2000 / Published online: 9 February 2001     

二维耦合定向输运模型研究

建立了外部驱动力及噪声作用下的二维耦合定向输运模型, 其中的一个维度上为周期性分段棘齿势, 另一垂直维度上为周期性对称非棘齿势, 外部驱动力及噪声加在周期对称非棘齿势方向上, 而棘齿势方向不加任何驱动, 采用非平衡统计及非线性动力学理论研究了过阻尼情况下耦合系统在两个维度上的输运性质. 结果显示, 棘齿势与非棘齿势方向均可产生定向输运, 其中棘齿势方向的系统平均速度对耦合强度、噪声强度、驱动力强度及粒子数目均有明显的依赖性, 合适的耦合强度、噪声强度、驱动力强度或粒子数目下均可产生最大输运速度. 而非棘齿势方向的系统平均速度受非棘齿势势垒高度影响显著, 但随耦合强度、驱动力强度、驱动力初相位差及粒子数目的变化均出现波动现象, 表现出平均速度对这些参量的依赖性较弱.