Hole states in quantum wells under high in-plane magnetic fields: Implications for resonant magnetotunneling spectroscopy

We calculate the hole energy-level structure in quantum wells (QW’s) in high in-plane magnetic fields. On the basis of our results, we analyze the conditions of validity of resonant magnetotunneling spectrosocpy (RMS) as a probe of the unperturbed hole subband dispersion. The high magnetic field used in RMS does not change appreciably, apart from a modest ‘‘spin’’ splitting, the hole subbands for thin wells, but have a non-negligible effect on the dispersion for thicker wells. We use a simplified analytical model to evaluate the field-related heavy-hole–light-hole mixing terms and we give their explicit dependence on the field strength and the width of the QW. This allows us to estimate the range of validity of RMS as a probe of hole subbands.