INPLANE DISPERSION-RELATIONS OF INAS/ALSB/GASB/ALSB/INAS INTERBAND RESONANT-TUNNELING DIODES

We report on a flexible eight-band model, derived from a modified Kane base, generating a transfer-matrix formalism to calculate the transmission probability of carriers through, and the in-plane dispersion relations of, stratified media. We apply this model to study InAs/AlSb/GaSb/AlSb/InAs interband resonant-tunneling diodes. We show that the boundary-condition sets deduced from current continuity and the boundary-condition sets deduced from a Hermitian Hamiltonian defined across the interface are equal. A simplified triple-band model is found to be a good approximation to calculate the deep light-hole energy levels in a resonant interband tunneling diode. However, these simplified triple-band approximations are no longer valid when the carriers have an in-plane momentum.