Time-resolved measurements of tunneling between double quantum wells in In0.53Ga0.47As/InP

Tunneling of electrons between double quantum wells is investigated by time-resolved photoluminescence in the picosecond regime. The samples contain two In0.53Ga0.47As quantum wells with different widths, separated by various InP barriers. At low excitation density, the luminescence decay time of th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 1989-08, Vol.55 (9), p.885-887
Main Authors: ALEXANDER, M. G. W, RÜHLE, W. W, SAUER, R, TSANG, W. T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures
Electronic transport in interface structures
Exact sciences and technology
Physics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Tunneling of electrons between double quantum wells is investigated by time-resolved photoluminescence in the picosecond regime. The samples contain two In0.53Ga0.47As quantum wells with different widths, separated by various InP barriers. At low excitation density, the luminescence decay time of the narrower quantum well depends strongly on the thickness of the barrier, revealing the lifetimes to be tunneling controlled. A semiclassical model explains the observed nonresonant tunneling escape times. With increasing density, the luminescence decay time of the narrower quantum well strongly increases and finally saturates due to effective mass filtering, which leads to a lineup of the electron levels in both wells and resonant tunneling.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.101615