ELASTIC AND INELASTIC TUNNELING IN A STRAINED-LAYER DOUBLE-BARRIER RESONANT-TUNNELING STRUCTURE

A magnetotransport study of the tunneling processes in a double-barrie r resonant-tunneling structure (DBRTS) containing a narrower pp strain ed-layer quantum-well region is reported. Clear evidence for the occur rence of both elastic and inelastic tunneling as a function of applied bias is found. Analysis of the magneto-oscillations shows that the de vice is on resonance at V = 0, as expected for a DBRTS with a strained InyGa1-yAs quantum-well region of narrower band gap than that of the GaAs contacts. The anomalous bias voltages of the LO-phonon-assisted t unneling features are explained from the variation of charge density i n the quantum well with bias, obtained from complementary optical meas urements.