Periodicity of resonant tunneling current induced by the Stark resonances in semiconductor nanowire

Abstract

The modification of the electronic current resulting from Stark resonances has been studied for the semiconductor nanowire with the double-barrier structure. Based on the calculated current-voltage characteristics, we have shown that the resonant tunneling current is a periodic function of the width of the spacer layer. We have also demonstrated that the simultaneous change of the source-drain voltage and the voltage applied to the gate located near the nanowire leads to almost periodic changes of the resonant tunneling current as a function of the source-drain and gate voltages. The periodic properties of the resonant tunneling current result from the formation of the Stark resonance states. If we change the electric field acting in the nanowire, the Stark states periodically acquire the energies from the transport window and enhance the tunneling current in a periodic manner. We have found that the separations between the resonant current peaks on the source-drain voltage scale can be described by a slowly increasing linear function of the Stark state quantum number. This allows us to identify the quantum states that are responsible for the enhancement of the resonant tunneling. We have proposed a method of the experimental observation of the Stark resonances in semiconductor double-barrier heterostructures. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.