In this paper the photon-assisted electron motion in a multiquantum well (MQW) semiconductor heterostructure in the presence of an electric field is investigated. The time-dependent Schrodinger equation is solved by using the split-operator technique
to determine the photocurrent generated by the electron movement through the biased MQW system. An analysis of the energy shifts in the photocurrent spectra reveals interesting features coming from the contributions of localized and extended states on the MQW system. The photocurrent signal is found to increase for certain values of electric field, leading to the analogue of the negative-conductance in resonant tunneling diodes. The origin of this enhancement is traced to the mixing of localized states in the QWs with those in the continuum. This mixing appears as anticrossings between the localized and extended states and the enhanced photocurrent can be related to the dynamically induced Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana transition between two levels at the anticrossing.
Photocurrents are calculated for a specially designed GaMnAs semiconductor heterostructure. The results reveal regions in the infrared range of the energy spectrum in which the proposed structure is remarkably spin-selective. For such photon energies
, the generated photocurrents are strongly spin-polarized. Application of a relatively small static bias in the growth direction of the structure is predicted to efficiently reverse the spin-polarization for some photon energies. This behavior suggests the possibility of conveniently simple switching mechanisms. The physics underlying the results is studied and understood in terms of the spin-dependent properties emerging from the particular potential profile of the structure.
