Phonon-assisted tunneling in asymmetric resonant tunneling structures

TL;DR

This paper models phonon-assisted tunneling in asymmetric double barrier resonant tunneling structures, revealing how interface phonon modes influence current and device performance, and suggesting asymmetry can enhance efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a dielectric continuum model to analyze phonon-assisted tunneling in asymmetric DBRTSs, highlighting the impact of interface phonon modes on device characteristics.

Findings

Higher frequency interface phonon modes dominate PAT processes.

Phonon interactions increase valley current and decrease PVR.

Asymmetric structures can improve device performance.

Abstract

Based on the dielectric continuum model, we calculated the phonon assisted tunneling (PAT) current of general double barrier resonant tunneling structures (DBRTSs) including both symmetric and antisymmetric ones. The results indicate that the four higher frequency interface phonon modes (especially the one which peaks at either interface of the emitter barrier) dominate the PAT processes, which increase the valley current and decrease the PVR of the DBRTSs. We show that an asymmetric structure can lead to improved performance.