COMPRESSIVE AND TENSILE STRAIN EFFECTS ON HOLE TUNNELING IN AN INGAAS/ALLNAS ASYMMETRICAL COUPLED-QUANTUM-WELL

Abstract

Hole tunneling dynamics are investigated in a strained asymmetrical coupled quantum well (ACQW). The tunneling probabilities between heavy-hole states are calculated at different internal strains on the basis of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation analysis with the Luttinger-Kohn and an additional strain Hamiltonians. In a certain range of strain, a higher oscillation frequency (but a smaller oscillation amplitude) of hole tunneling at resonance is obtained in a biaxial tensile strain ACQW at in-plane wave vector k(parallel-to) = 0. The biaxial compressive strain is observed to lower the oscillation frequency. With a nonzero wave vector (k(parallel-to) not-equal 0), the oscillation frequency is found to be dominated by mixing effects and less dependent on the internal strain. The oscillation frequency remains roughly constant; however, the biaxial compressive strain ACQWs would still have a larger oscillation amplitude than biaxial tensile strain ACQWs.