Suppression of thermal broadening via Zener tunneling in narrow-gap semiconductor double-quantum-wire structures

Zener interband tunneling through a potential profile induced by two top gates in the plane of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) of a doped narrow-gap quantum well system is studied when the gates are biased differently. In contrast to the case of resonant transport through a potential profile created by a single gate these resonances exhibit only a weak dependence on temperature. We present results for a system based on an InSb quantum well and show that narrow resonances are maintained up to room temperature. Such narrow resonances may be exploited for voltage sensing at elevated temperatures.