Quasistationary states in single and double GaAs–(Ga,Al)As quantum wells: Applied electric field and hydrostatic pressure effects

We have calculated exactly the energy of electron quasistationary states in GaAs–(Ga,Al)As single and double quantum wells under the action of applied electric field and hydrostatic pressure by using Enderlein's method to solve the Schrödinger equation. Numerical results were obtained by means of the density of states as a function of the applied electric field, hydrostatic pressure, Al concentration and the structure geometry as well. We found two regions very well differentiated in energy; for lower values there are quasistationary states and for higher, fast oscillations. The quasistationary ground and excited energy states diminish with the well width and the applied electric field, and increase with the confinement potential and the width of the central barrier in the double quantum well. In the latter structure we observed the anti-crossing between the first and second quasistationary energy levels, phenomena which certainly depend on the central barrier width. Otherwise, in the region of fast oscillations, the period of Franz–Keldysh oscillation type in single quantum well and double quantum well increases with the applied electric field and the number of nodes augments with the well width. Also, we found that the increase of the central barrier height in the double quantum well diminishes the number of nodes, while the applied hydrostatic pressure changes the length of pulsations in both structures.