Total angular momentum conservation during tunnelling through semiconductor barriers

U. Gennser; M. Scheinert; L. Diehl; S. Tsujino; A. Borak; C. V. Falub; D. Grützmacher; A. Weber; D. K. Maude; G. Scalari; Y. Campidelli; O. Kermarrec; D. Bensahel

doi:10.1209/epl/i2006-10042-8

All issues

Volume 74 / No 5 (June 2006)

Europhys. Lett., 74 5 (2006) 882-888

Abstract

Issue		Europhys. Lett. Volume 74, Number 5, June 2006


Page(s)		882 - 888
Section		Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2006-10042-8
Published online		10 May 2006

Europhys. Lett., 74 (5), pp. 882-888 (2006)

Total angular momentum conservation during tunnelling through semiconductor barriers

U. Gennser¹, M. Scheinert², L. Diehl²^,3, S. Tsujino², A. Borak², C. V. Falub², D. Grützmacher², A. Weber², D. K. Maude⁴, G. Scalari⁵, Y. Campidelli⁶, O. Kermarrec⁶ and D. Bensahel⁶

¹ CNRS-LPN - Route de Nozay, F-91460 Marcsoussis, France
² Paul Scherrer Institut - CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland
³ Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
⁴ GHMFL, CNRS - F-38042 Grenoble, France
⁵ Université de Neuchâtel - CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
⁶ STMicroelectronics - F-38926 Crolles Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ulf.gennser@lpn.cnrs.fr

Received: 9 January 2006
Accepted: 12 April 2006

Abstract

We have investigated the electrical transport through strained p-type $\ab{Si}/\ab{Si}_{1-x}\ab{Ge}_x$ double-barrier resonant tunnelling diodes. The confinement shift for diodes with different well width, the shift due to a central potential spike in a well, and magnetotunnelling spectroscopy demonstrate that the first two resonances are due to tunnelling through heavy-hole levels, whereas there is no sign of tunnelling through the first light-hole state. This establishes for the first time the conservation of the total angular momentum in valence band resonant tunnelling. It is also shown that conduction through light-hole states is possible in many structures due to tunnelling of carriers from bulk emitter states.

PACS: 72.25.Dc – Spin polarized transport in semiconductors / 73.40.Gk – Tunneling

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