Resonant tunneling through double barrier graphene systems: A comparative study of Klein and non-Klein tunneling structures

We study the resonant tunneling effects through double barrier graphene systems (DBGSs). We have considered two types of DBGSs in order to take into account or rule out Klein tunneling effects: (1) the well-known and documented electrostatic-barrier structures (EBSs) created by means of electrostatic probes that act perpendicularly to the graphene sheet; and (2) substrate-barrier structures (SBSs) built sitting the graphene layer on alternating substrates, such as SiO2 and SiC, which are capable of non-open and open an energy bandgap on graphene. The transfer matrix approach is used to obtain the transmittance, linear-regime conductance, and electronic structure for different set of parameters such as electron energy, electron incident angle, barrier, and well widths. Particular attention is paid to the asymmetric characteristics of the DBGSs, as well as to the main differences between Klein and non-Klein tunneling structures. We find that: (1) the transmission properties can be modulated readily changing the energy and angle of the incident electrons, the widths of the well and barrier regions; (2) the linear-regime conductance is easily enhancing, diminishing, and shifted changing from symmetric to asymmetric DBGSs configuration overall in the case of non-Klein tunneling structures; (3) the conductance shows an oscillatory behavior as function of the well width, with peaks that are directly related to the opening and opening-closure of bound-state subbands for EBSs and SBSs, respectively. Finally, it is important to mention that electrostatic DBGSs or substrate DBGSs could be more suitable depending on a specific application, and in the case of non-Klein tunneling structures, they seem possible considering the sophistication of the current epitaxial growth techniques and whenever substrates that open an energy bandgap on graphene, without diminishing the carrier's mobility, be experimentally discovered. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4757591]