Tunneling Rate in Double Quantum Wells

Abstract

We study spectral properties of electron tunneling in isolated double quantum wells (DQWs) in relation to the geometry variations of the double quantum well shapes. The tunneling rates in the double quantum wells for whole spectrum of confined electron states are calculated. The effect of the regularization of the tunneling rate along spectrum is searched by transformation of the geometry of quantum well in double quantum well from “regular” one to “chaotic” one. The cases of quantum billiards (infinite confinement) and InAs/GaAs quantum wells (finite confinement) are compared. The calculations presented do not generally support the recent proposed assumption about such effect. We show the strong influence of the geometry of quantum well boundaries on variations of tunneling rate along spectrum.

Keywords

• Quantum dots and wells
• Single electron states
• Tunneling
• Chaotic quantum billiards.