Abstract

In a double barrier resonant tunnelling diode, the lifetime of the electrons in the well is governed by the coupling of the confined states to the continuum of states outside the barriers. The well states are broadened by the interaction with the continuum on each side of the structure and are thus metastable, even without any relaxation mechanism such as phonon emission. If an electron is injected into the structure as in the experiment of Tsuchyia et al [1], it will leak out with a time constant given only by the barrier thickness.

© 1991 Optical Society of America