Tunneling between parallel two-dimensional electron gases

Abstract

The tunneling between two parallel two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) has been investigated as a function of temperature T, carrier density n, and the applied perpendicular magnetic field B. In zero magnetic field the equilibrium resonant line shape is Lorentzian, reflecting the Lorentzian form of the spectral functions within each layer. From the width of the tunneling resonance the lifetime of the electrons within a 2DEG has been measured as a function of n and T, giving information about the density dependence of the electron-impurity scattering and the temperature dependence of the electron-electron scattering. In a magnetic field there is a general suppression of equilibrium tunneling for fields above B = 0.6 T. A gap in the tunneling density of states has been measured over a wide range of magnetic fields and filling factors, and various theoretical predictions have been examined. In a strong magnetic field, when there is only one partially filled Landau level in each layer, the temperature dependence of the conductance characteristics has been modeled with a double-Gaussian spectral density.