Energy effective mass dependence of electron tunneling through CdS/CdSe, AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs and AlSb/InAs Multiple Quantum Barriers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the effective mass of electrons influences tunneling through various semiconductor quantum barriers, using the Transfer Matrix Method to analyze transmission coefficients across different barrier widths and materials.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of effective mass effects on electron tunneling in multiple quantum barrier structures with varying dimensions and material compositions.

Findings

Transmission coefficients are significantly affected by effective mass variations.

Scaling down barrier widths enhances tunneling probabilities.

Resonant states are identified for potential optoelectronic applications.

Abstract

Tunneling of electrons through the barriers in heterostructures devices is investigated by using the unified Transfer Matrix Method. The effect of barrier width on electron transmission coefficients has also been examined for different pairs of semiconductor devices of significant research interest in current years. Such Pairs involve AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs, AlSb/InAs, and CdS/CdSe quantum barriers with varying dimensions reduced from 20 nm to 5nm to observe how tunneling properties are affected by scaling. The effective electron masses in the well and barrier regions typically vary with constituent materials. It has been shown that the transmission coefficients are significantly changed due to the coupling. The effective mass-dependent transmission coefficients for electron energy have been evaluated in terms of the mass discontinuity metrics. The electron transmission coefficients for each pair of quantum structures are plotted with the variation of its electron energy, normalized to its potential energy. The resonant state obtained here will be beneficial for designing detectors, optical filters, photonic-switching devices and other optoelectronic and photonic devices.