Phonon scattering and energy relaxation in two-, one-, and zero-dimensional electron gases

✍ Scribed by Bockelmann, U.

• Book ID: 111917571
• Publisher: The American Physical Society
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 294 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1098-0121
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.42.8947

✦ Synopsis

We report on calculations of intrasubband and intersubband phonon scattering in quantumconfined electron gases based on lattice-matched In"oa&, As/InP quantum wells. Dimensionality e6'ects on the emission of acoustic phonons are studied comparing the scattering times of two-, one-, and zero-dimensional electron gases as a function of the lateral confinement. Optical phonon scattering in quantum wells and wires is discussed using a phenomenological broadening of the one-dimensional density of states. The energy relaxation rates of heated electron gases due to pho- non emission and absorption have been calculated for lattice temperatures TI between 0.3 and 20 K.

For a given heating power per electron, the electron temperature T, in a quantum wire can be greater or smaller than that in the corresponding quantum well, depending on the electron density n"while the energy relaxation in quantum dots with significant quantization energies is always slower than in the corresponding wells and wires.