Chaos in quantum wells and analogous optical systems

✍ Scribed by T.M. Fromhold; P.B. Wilkinson; P.M. Martin; A. Thornton; L. Eaves; F.W. Sheard; P.C. Main; M. Henini

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 254 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1386-9477
• DOI: 10.1016/s1386-9477(01)00186-2

✦ Synopsis

The quantized states of a 60 nm wide potential well in a large tilted magnetic ÿeld are investigated using scaled ÿeld resonant tunnelling spectroscopy. In contrast to previous experiments on this type of system, the tunnelling characteristics are measured by changing both the magnetic ÿeld strength B and the applied bias voltage V such that V=B 2 is approximately constant. This ensures that the classical phase space for electrons in the potential well has the same mixed stable-chaotic character for all ÿelds. As a consequence of this scaling, each closed orbit in the potential well produces many periodic resonant peaks in plots of d 2 I=dB 2 versus B. This type of scaled ÿeld experiment can be used to probe quantum states corresponding to dynamical regimes which are inaccessible to ÿxed ÿeld resonant tunnelling studies. We also consider analogies between the electron orbits and light rays in gradient refractive index lenses.