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Biased GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices employed as energy filter for ballistic electron emission microscopy
Author(s) -
Smoliner J.,
Heer R.,
Strasser G.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9918(199905/06)27:5/6<542::aid-sia484>3.0.co;2-w
Subject(s) - superlattice , electron , transmission electron microscopy , ballistic conduction , materials science , atomic physics , condensed matter physics , optoelectronics , physics , optics , quantum mechanics
In this work, buried Al 0.4 Ga 0.6 As/GaAssuperlattices are employed as an energy filter in order to study theenergy distribution of the ballistic electron current in ballisticelectron emission microscopy (BEEM). As the measured totaltransmission of the superlattice is in excellent agreement with thecalculated transmission, the superlattice is a promising tunableenergy filter for studying the energy distribution of ballisticelectrons. We further show that due to the large difference inelectron masses between the Au base layer and the GaAs collector,parallel momentum conservation leads to considerable electronrefraction at the Au/GaAs interface. As a consequence, the energydistribution of ballistic electrons is inverted beyond theAu/GaAs interface. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons,Ltd.