SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM DOT RESONANT TUNNELING SPECTROSCOPY

Recently, three-dimensionally laterally confined semiconductor quantum wells ('quantum dots') have been realized. These structures are analo gous to semiconductor atoms, with energy level separation of order 25 meV, and tunable by means of the confining potentials. A systematic st udy reveals a (radius)-1 dependence on the energy separation. The elec tronic transport through quantum dots is presented and analysed. The s pectra correspond to resonant tunnelling from laterally confined emitt er contact subbands through the discrete three-dimensionally confined quantum dot states. The effects of two dots in series, and Fermi level effects, are presented.