By applying the nonequilibrium Green’s function approach, we study the resonant tunneling through double-barrier structures involving the interaction of the tunneling electron with the electromagnetic (EM) environmental fluctuations, which is characterized by the environmental resistance and capacitance. Our results show that the dissipative behaviors are qualitatively the same for zero temperature and low temperatures. However, the effect of the dissipation becomes more and more insensitive to the environmental resistance for a fixed capacitance as the temperature increases. At higher temperatures, we find the effect of the EM environmental fluctuations can be probed by changing the capacitance rather than the resistance. An interesting comparison with the dissipative feature of the electron-LO-phonon interaction is made in this regime.

• Received 5 July 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.51.5214