The effect of non-equilibrium acoustic phonons on the tunnel current in GaAs / AlAs superlattices

Özet

We present the first study of the effect of ballistic acoustic phonons generated by a heated metal film on the tunnel current in GaAs/AlAs superlattices. The phonon-induced increase of the tunnel current as a function of applied voltage has a maximum at a voltage that varies linearly with heater temperature both in zero and applied magnetic field. The behaviour is consistent with phonon-assisted tunnelling by stimulated phonon emission. The system acts as a phonon spectrometer in the < 1THz frequency region with a resolution of approximately 200 GHz.