Magnetotunneling in interband tunnel structures

Abstract

We examine the effect of in-plane magnetic fields on transport properties of InAs/GaSb/AlSb-based resonant interband tunneling (RIT) structures and barrierless resonant interband tunneling structures using the multiband k\ensuremath{\cdot}p quantum transmitting boundary method [Y. X. Liu et al., Phys. Rev. B 54, 5765 (1996)]. In interband tunnel structures with GaSb quantum wells, the primary peak found in the current-voltage characteristic is due to the coupling of InAs conduction-band electrons to quantized GaSb light-hole states, and a weaker shoulder peak typically shows up as the result of coupling to quantized GaSb heavy-hole states. We find that in-plane magnetic fields can enhance this electron-heavy-hole coupling, resulting in a more pronounced shoulder peak in the current-voltage characteristic. Qualitative agreement between our calculations and experimental data on RIT structures offers strong evidence for hole-mixing induced electron-heavy-hole coupling in interband tunnel structures.