VALIDITY OF THE TRANSFER-MATRIX METHOD FOR A 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTRON WAVE-GUIDE

We solve the singularity problem of the transfer matrix method for a two-dimensional electron wave guide consisting of a sequence of cells. The method is reformulated in terms of intrinsic Bloch waves of a device cell. The resulting method is proved to be both stable and accurate. The transfer matrix is formulated without divergence problems in the open-mode approximation. The formula relating the N-cell transmission probability with that of one cell in the single-mode approximation takes exactly the same form as in the one-dimensional case.