Tunnelling through a semiconducting spacer: complex band predictions vs. thin film calculations

TL;DR

This paper compares complex band structure predictions with thin film calculations to evaluate tunnelling through a semiconducting spacer, considering effects of spacer width and interfacial roughness.

Contribution

It provides a systematic comparison between complex band predictions and finite thin film calculations for tunnelling in semiconductors.

Findings

Complex band predictions have limitations for finite structures.

Interfacial roughness significantly affects tunnelling.

Spacer width influences tunnelling behavior.

Abstract

Using a simple tight-binding model, we compare the limitations of the tunnelling predictions coming out of the complex band structure of a semiconductor with the output of thin film calculations done for the same semiconducting spacer but considering it to be of finite width, and sandwiched by metallic electrodes. The comparison is made as a function of spacer width and interfacial roughness.