The possibilities of frequency-resolved phonon detection and generation given by a three-barrier tunneling heterostructure tuned by voltage applied to a gate are considered. It is shown that if the dominant channel for charge transfer corresponds to inelastic phonon-stimulated (or assisted) tunneling such a structure may exhibit rather good parameters as a phonon-spectroscopy device.

• Received 2 August 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.49.5710