Effects of Lateral Confinement in a Superlattice

Abstract

We discuss the progress that we have had in studying the effects that lateral confinement has in the electronic bandstructure of a superlattice, and consequently, on its current-voltage characteristics. This study has been divided into several parts. First, we study devices that make use peculiarities in their electronic bandstructure in order to understand the possible applications of a custom-made bandstructure. Then, we concentrate on superlattices and their properties. Next, we will try to put forward a hypothesis of the effect that the lateral confinement of electrons in a superlattice will have in the electronic bandstructure of the superlattice. Finally, we will mention the methods that we are using to try to verify our hypothesis on lateral confinement of superlattices. Although we do not have any specific results that would verify the hypothesis that lateral confinement of a superlattice affects its electronic bandstructure and I-V characteristics, we present a summary of other experiments that try to confine carriers laterally in semiconductors using different fabrication techniques. We believe that these experiments will help us have a better idea of the effects of lateral confinement. Our work in simulating the electronic band structure of a superlattice when it is laterally confined is still going on.