The geometric potential of a double-frequency corrugated surface

TL;DR

This paper derives the effective Hamiltonian for electrons on a double-frequency corrugated surface, revealing how geometric potential influences electron transmission and enabling potential electronic switching applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new model for the geometric potential on double-frequency corrugated surfaces and analyzes its impact on electron transmission properties.

Findings

Resonant tunneling peaks become sharper with higher multiple frequency.

Transmission gaps widen as the multiple frequency increases.

Double-frequency corrugations can effectively select electrons by energy.

Abstract

For an electron confined to a surface reconstructed by double-frequency corrugations, we give the effective Hamiltonian by the formula of geometric influences, obtain an additive scalar potential induced by curvature that consists of attractive wells with different depth. The difference is generated by the multiple frequency of the double-frequency corrugation. Subsequently, we investigate the effects of geometric potential on the transmission probability, and find the resonant tunneling peaks becoming rapidly sharper and the transmission gaps being substantially widened with increasing the multiple frequency. As a potential application, double-frequency corrugations can be employed to select electrons with particular incident energy, as an electronic switch, which are more effective than a single-frequency ones.