Total transmission of electrons in semiconductor heterostructures at oblique incidence

Abstract

An alternative method to resonant tunneling for obtaining total transmission in semiconductor heterostructures is investigated. This nonresonant total transmission has been shown to be difficult to achieve for electrons at normal incidence. However, if the momentum of the electron is altered so that the component in the direction parallel to the material interface is nonzero, the transmission properties of the electron change, and the potential for total transmission is more promising. In the single-band approximation, for incident electron energies above the crossing points of the dispersion curves of the two materials, there exists an angle between the direction of the electron's momentum and the material interface at which total transmission is achieved. The experimental demonstration of nonresonant total transmission could potentially open the door to a number of applications. In particular, its potential for the measurement of small band offsets between two materials in a heterostructure and in electronic applications is discussed. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.