Transmission characteristics including the coupling effect between normal and lateral degrees of freedom in step-barrier structures with a longitudinal magnetic field

In this paper we study the tunneling transport phenomena in a step-barrier structure under the influence of a longitudinal magnetic field, where the magneto-coupling effect is taken into account between the longitudinal motion component and the transverse Landau orbits of an electron. We also present numerical results of single square-barrier and asymmetrical double-barrier heterostructures for comparison. The results show that the coupling effect can play important role during the electronic tunneling process. It not only causes a significant shift of resonant peaks toward the low-energy region, but also enhances the transmission probability. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.