Nonequilibrium Green’s Function Approach to Dynamic Properties of Resonant-Tunneling through Double-Barrier Structures

In this paper, we review a recently developed approach to the dynamic properties of double barrier resonant tunneling systems, based on the nonequilibrium Green’s function technique and the Feynman path integral theory. The transient behavior of tunneling current, immediately after the switch-on of a dc bias voltage, is characterized by the building up process of tunneling electrons in the quantum well. The novel negative differential conductance demonstrates itself as a function of frequency of the small ac signal imposed upon a dc bias. The imaginary part of admittance is shown to be related to the conductance via a Kronig-Kramers relation. The noise characteristics clearly demonstrate a strong time correlation derived from the Pauli exclusion principle and have evident dependence upon the structure parameters and the bias voltage. All those theoretical results are compared with experiments and numerical simulations.