Abstract

Double-barrier tunneling structures operate based on quantum mechanical tunneling through two barriers.¹ Quantum electron wave structures operate based on traveling-wave propagation above all conduction band edges.² These are the fundamental structures proposed to achieve ballistic electron transport devices in semiconductors. The time-dependent behavior of resonant tunneling structures has been discussed extensively in the literature, but no such analysis has been performed on quantum wave structures. A numerical solution of the time-dependent effective mass equation is used to calculate the traversal time of a Gaussian packet and the percentage of the packet transmitted for resonant tunneling and quantum wave structures.

© 1991 Optical Society of America