English

Photogalvanic current in a double quantum well

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2015-06-12 v1

Abstract

We study the in-plane stationary current caused by phototransitions between the states of a double quantum well. The electric polarization of light has both vertical and in-plane components. The stationary current originates from the periodic vibration of electrons between two non-equivalent quantum wells caused by the normal component of the alternating electric field with simultaneous in-plane acceleration/deceleration by the in-plane component of electric field. The quantum mechanism of the stationary current is conditioned by in-plane transition asymmetry which appears due to the indirect phototransitions with the participation of impurity scattering. The photocurrent has a resonant character corresponding to the equality of the photon energy to the distance between subbands. It is found that the current appears as a response to the linear-polarized light.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1212.5868,
  title  = {Photogalvanic current in a double quantum well},
  author = {M. V. Entin and L. I. Magarill},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.5868},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:59:41.443Z