Effect of inelastic scattering on resonant tunneling studied by the optical potential and path integrals

Abstract

An analytical expression is obtained for the peak and valley currents of a resonant tunneling diode by using the optical potential to represent the effect of inelastic scattering. The assumption is made that scattered electrons in the well tunnel through both the left- and right-hand-side barriers in proportion to the transmission coefficient of each barrier. The result for peak current showing that scattering has little influence on it is in good agreement with microscopic theory. In contrast, the valley current increases in proportion to the scattering rate. It is pointed out that the controversy regarding sequential tunneling arises from the ambiguity of its definition. It is also pointed out that the Fabry–Perot effect still plays a significant role in producing resonance even when scattering is strong.