TUNNELING BETWEEN A 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTRON-GAS AND A 2-DIMENSIONAL HOLE GAS

Using tunneling probabilities from two-band model calculations, interband tunneling from a two-dimensional electron gas to a two-dimensional hole gas is examined. The tunneling current is found, both in the direct and in the indirect case, to decrease inversely with the lifetime tau(r) of states occupied in the two-dimensional hole gas by tunneling. As with increasing temperature tau(r) commonly decreases, the temperature dependence of interband tunneling between two-dimensional carrier gases is expected to be more pronounced than that between three-dimensional carrier gases. By use of a self-consistent approach, tunneling currents are calculated for the deltan-deltap doping structure in (100) silicon.