2002/09/20 by Oleg A. Tretiakov, O. A. Tretiakov, Thomas Gramespacher +3 · 37 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Bistability #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Metastability #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #State (computer science) #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.67.073303
published in Physical review. B, Condensed matter 67(7) (American Physical Society) · REVTeX 4, 5 pages, 3 EPS-figures
arxiv created 2002/09/20 · openalex publication_date 2003/02/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate the transport of electrons through a double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure in the regime where the current-voltage characteristics exhibit bistability. In this regime one of the states is metastable, and the system eventually switches from it to the stable state. We show that the mean switching time \ensuremathτ grows exponentially as the voltage V across the device is tuned from the boundary value Vth into the bistable region. In samples of small area we find ln\ensuremathτ\ensuremath∝|V\ensuremath-Vth|3/2, while in larger samples ln\ensuremathτ\ensuremath∝|V\ensuremath-Vth|.