Influence of nonparabolicity on tunneling times in semiconductor structures

Abstract

Tunneling of a particle with energy-dependent effective mass through one-dimensional potential barrier is considered. For an arbitrary potential shape we find general relations between phase, group and dwell times, and finally derive explicit relations for the textbook case of a rectangular potential barrier. Accounting for the nonparabolicity is found to increase the group time by up to 30% in realistic structures, depending on the energy of incident particle.