PHOTOLUMINESCENCE INVESTIGATION OF THE TUNNELING DYNAMICS OF HOLES AND ELECTRONS IN A P-TYPE ALAS GAAS RESONANT-TUNNELING STRUCTURE/

Time resolved photoluminescence (PL) experiments on a p-type double-ba rrier AlAs/GaAs resonant tunnelling structure revealed an unexpectedly long PL decay at a bias voltage below the first resonance in the curr ent voltage characteristics. It can be explained by the occurrence of inefficient nonresonant tunnelling of electrons from confined states i n the hole depletion layer into the quantum well. The model calculatio n used in this interpretation could be cross-checked with the observat ion of two PL-transitions from cross-barrier recombination of electron s (holes) in the lowest levels inside the quantum well with holes (ele ctrons) in the respective GaAs layers adjacent to the RTS. (C) 1998 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.