Abstract
An Arrhenius‐type of expression is derived for the emission rate of electrons from a quantum well on the basis of detailed balance principles. The formulation is applied to a 150‐Å In0.2Ga0.8As/Al0.16Ga0.84As strained single quantum well grown by molecular beam epitaxy. From an analysis of the data it is possible to estimate the conduction band offset ΔEc, which may be extremely useful for strained systems.