Intrinsic bistability and magnetic-field effects in resonant tunneling systems

The intrinsic bistability of an asymmetric double barrier device in the presence of a magnetic field in the direction of the current flow is discussed. A simple tight binding formalism with a nonlinear Hartree term that represents the electron-electron interaction is shown to produce the magnetic field-dependent hysteresis loops characteristic of these systems. The width of the resulting bistable region oscillates with magnetic field, as observed in experiment.