Transport Properties of the Semiconductor Superlattice

Precise calculations have been made, by Monte Carlo methods, of electron transport properties of the Esaki superlattice. The calculations were on a single-particle space-homogeneous basis, with a model of the superlattice which could be reasonably close to reality. Steady-state longitudinal drift-velocity/field characteristics were obtained, for four sets of parameter values; they exhibited the expected maximum followed by negative differential mobility. The accompanying variations of the longitudinal and transverse energy averages were also obtained, and the distribution functions for longitudinal wavevector and transverse energy were investigated. The frequency dependences of the differential mobilities (in-phase and out-of-phase components) were obtained in some representative cases; they exhibited a “Bloch resonance.”