Resonant Transport in Coupled Quantum Wells: a Probe for Scattering Mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory and presents experimental evidence showing how resistance resonance in coupled quantum wells can reveal details about scattering mechanisms, including remote impurity and electron-electron interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to extract scattering parameters directly from transport measurements in coupled quantum wells, including the first observation of a negative Hall coefficient resonance.

Findings

Resonance shape is sensitive to small angle scattering and electron-electron scattering.

Negative resonance in Hall coefficient observed and predicted for the first time.

Transport measurements can directly determine scattering parameters.

Abstract

We present a microscopical theory and experimental results concerning resistance resonance in two tunneling coupled quantum wells with different mobilities. The shape of the resonance appears to be sensitive to the small angle scattering rate on remote impurities and to the electron--electron scattering rate. This allows the extraction of scattering parameters directly from the transport measurements. The negative resonance in a Hall coefficient is predicted and observed for the first time.