TUNNELING IN QUANTUM-WIRE SUPERLATTICES WITH RANDOM LAYER THICKNESSES

The electron tunneling of a GaAs/Ga1-xAlxAs superlattice with randomly distributed layer thicknesses is studied within the framework of the effective-mass approximation in the Wannier representation. The transf er-matrix method and Landauer formula are used to calculate the electr on transmission coefficient and tunneling conductance, respectively. A nalytical and numerical calculations are performed for the tunneling c onductance with different values of potential barrier (different x for Ga1-xAlxAs) and layer thicknesses. The present calculations show that the peak positions of the tunneling conductance are shifted to lower energy as x decreases. The number of peaks can be increased by increas ing the layer thicknesses. Therefore, optical and electronic semicondu ctor devices may be artificially prepared by the proper choice of thes e parameters for quantum-wire superlattices with random layer thicknes ses.