Hot-electron spectroscopy of Bloch electrons in high-order minibands in semiconductor superlattices

Abstract

We inject electrons at arbitrary energy into the band structure of a GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor superlattice. The electrons traverse a finite number of periods and are then analyzed for the electron momentum distribution using a hot-electron spectrometer. By this technique, we are able to give the first demonstration of miniband conduction through high-order minibands. We relate the transmission and energy-loss characteristic to tight-binding models of the superlattice.