SUBPICOSECOND HOLE TUNNELING BY NONRESONANT DELOCALIZATION IN ASYMMETRIC DOUBLE-QUANTUM WELLS

We present experimental evidence for subpicosecond hole tunneling in asymmetric double-quantum-well structures. A single tunneling time is observed at low carrier densities indicating that hole tunneling times are at least as fast as electron tunneling times despite the absence of resonances between hole states. We have conducted band-structure and tunneling-time calculations suggesting that nonresonant delocalization of hole wave functions combined with alloy scattering provides an efficient mechanism for fast hole transfer from the narrow well (NW) to the wide well (WW) at finite in-plane momenta. We suggest that holes tunnel to the WW before reaching the bottom of the lowest subband in the NW.