A transfer matrix approach to conductance in quantum waveguides

A transfer matrix approach is presented for the study of electron conduction in an arbitrarily shaped cavity structure embedded in a quantum wire. Using the boundary conditions for wave functions, the transfer matrix at an interface with a discontinuous potential boundary is obtained for the first time. The total transfer matrix is calculated by multiplication of the transfer matrix for each segment of the structure as well as numerical integration of coupled second-order differential equations. The proposed method is applied to the evaluation of the conductance and the electron probability density in several typical cavity structures. The effect of the geometrical features on the electron transmission is discussed in detail. In the numerical calculations, the method is found to be more efficient than most of the other methods in the literature and the results are found to be in excellent agreement with those obtained by the recursive Green's function method.

Observation of N-Shaped Negative Differential Resistance in GaAs-Based Modulation-Doped Field Effect Transistor with InAs Quantum Dots

N-shaped negative differential resistance (NDR) with a high peak-to-valley ratio (PVR) is observed in a GaAs-based modulation-doped field effect transistor (MODFET) with InAs quantum dots (QDs) in the barrier layer (QDFET) compared with a GaAs MODFET. The NDR is explained as the real-space transfer (RST) of high-mobility electrons in a channel into nearby barrier layers with low mobility, and the PVR is enhanced dramatically upon inserting the QD layer. It is also revealed that the QD layer traps holes and acts as a positively charged nano-floating gate after a brief optical illumination, while it acts as a negatively charged nano-floating gate and depletes the adjacent channel when charged by the electrons. The NDR suggests a promising application in memory or high-speed logic devices for the QDFET structure.