Ballistic-electron-emission microscopy of electron transport through AlAs/GaAs heterostructures

Abstract

BEEM spectroscopy has been used to characterize hot-carrier transport through AlAs/GaAs heterostructures. The dependence of electron transmission on AlAs thickness has been directly measured, and the position of the AlAs ${\mathit{L}}_{1}$ minima, which has been subject to some uncertainty in the past, has been determined. First-principles transmission calculations, based on a tight-binding formalism, are compared to the results of BEEM spectroscopy.