An energy- and spatial-dependent effective mass approach for resonant interband tunneling devices

A theoretical study of resonant interband tunneling in GaAs δ-doped inducing homostructure and polytype GaSb/AlSb/InAs heterostructure is presented in this article. The resonant interband tunneling in such homo- and heterostructures is modeled by an energy- and spatial-dependent effective mass equation incorporating the general transfer matrix method. The present formalism is based on the envelope function approximation as done to date, but contains two significant improvements: a more realistic treatment of the spatial and energy dependence of effective-mass and bandstructures; and the avoidance of plane-wave, Airy function or Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximations for calculating the envelope function in favor of direct numerical evaluation. The transmission coefficients of the unipolar and bipolar resonant interband tunneling structures are calculated and the symmetric and asymmetric multiple quantum well resonant interband tunneling structures are also discussed.