Aperiodicity-induced effects on the transmission resonances in multibarrier systems

Abstract

We study the resonant tunneling properties of an electron through a few types of binary periodic and aperiodic multibarrier systems. Within the framework of the effective-mass approximation, we calculate the transmission coefficients to investigate the dependence of the transmission resonances on the system parameters such as the kind of aperiodicity, the generation number, and the widths of the wells and barriers. Similarities and differences of the resonances between the binary periodic and aperiodic systems are discussed in detail. Transmission resonances in aperiodic systems are found to be characterized by complex resonance splitting and a variety of peak-to-valley ratios which are not exhibited in the periodic system. For some energy ranges, transmission resonances in aperiodic systems are also found to resemble those in the periodic system, despite the existence of aperiodicity.