Abstract

The quantum mechanical wave behavior of ballistic electrons allows them to be guided by a semiconductor quantum well. These structures act as optical slab waveguides for guiding directions normal to the confinement direction. The allowed modes in an asymmetric quantum well slab waveguide are described quantitatively. Electron waveguiding can occur for energies above one or both of the potential barriers. Due to dispersion, each electron waveguide mode has an upper-energy cutoff as well as a lower-energy cutoff. An example waveguide consisting of Ga_0.85 Al_0.15AS (substrate), GaAs (film), and Ga_0.70 Al_0.30AS (cover) is presented. For [100] GaAs layer thicknesses of from six through thirty-one monolayers this structure is a single-mode electron waveguide. These waveguides are potentially useful in high speed electronic circuitry and as a central component in future electron guided-wave integrated circuits.

© 1989 Optical Society of America