REALISTIC MODEL OF WANNIER-STARK LADDERS IN SUPERLATTICES

The purpose of the present paper is to report an exhaustive study of W annier Stark ladders (WSL's) in superlattices. Our study makes use of a model which is more meaningful than what were considered previously by others. Further, our study follows a multiband approach and incorpo rates, thereby, the effect of Zener tunnelling on WSL's in superlattic es. Taking recourse to elaborate quantitative analysis, we have obtain ed the conditions under which WSL would occur in a superlattice, parti ally or fully. In addition, we have investigated in detail the charact eristics of the wave functions related to WSL's in a superlattice. We feel that it would be easy to make a fruitful application of our multi farious results. [S0163-1829(98)01024-8].