Magnetic field effects on non-periodic superlattice structures

Abstract

A simple numerical method to study the effect of an applied magnetic field on the energy spectrum of non-periodic superlattice structures is presented. The magnetic field could be either parallel or perpendicular to the growth direction. Our method is based on the transfer matrix technique and on the effective mass approximation. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach using several examples. In particular, we study the perturbation to the energy spectrum of periodic superlattice induced by the introduction of an enlarged well. We found that these perturbations are negligible for B//z but relevant for B$\perp $z. Preliminary results for Fibonacci superlattices in magnetic fields are presented as well. In these quasi-periodic structures the energy levels become strongly dispersive in presence of a perpendicular magnetic field.