Elastic and inelastic tunneling in a strained-layer double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure

A magnetotransport study of the tunneling processes in a double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure (DBRTS) containing a narrower gap strained-layer quantum-well region is reported. Clear evidence for the occurrence of both elastic and inelastic tunneling as a function of applied bias is found. Analysis of the magneto-oscillations shows that the device is on resonance at V=0, as expected for a DBRTS with a strained Iny{Ga}_{1{{-}}y}$As quantum-well region of narrower band gap than that of the GaAs contacts. The anomalous bias voltages of the LO-phonon-assisted tunneling features are explained from the variation of charge density in the quantum well with bias, obtained from complementary optical measurements.