AN EFFECTIVE TWO-LEVEL CHANNEL FOR AN IMPURITY IN A SUPERLATTICE

The eigenstates and eigenspectrum of a charged particle in a one-dimensional semiconductor superlattice with an impurity under the action of a dc electric field are investigated employing the single-band tight-binding model. We find that the system undergoes a series of avoided crossings, at which resonant oscillations between the impurity and its nearest neighbour occur if appropriate conditions are met, suggesting an effective two-level approximation. This phenomenon shows that introducing an impurity in a perfect lattice provides a promising structure for the observation of terahertz radiation.