Momentum relaxation of photo-excited carriers in GaAs was investigated using the Monte Carlo approach. A laser of 1.51 eV photon energy and 9 fs width was assumed. Simulations were performed for excitation densities ranging from 10¹⁶ cm^-3 to 8 X 10¹⁷ cm^-3. For n_exc equals 8 X 10¹⁷ cm^-3, the distribution of the carrier momentum was found to approximate a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution 25 fs after laser excitation, which concurs with recent experimental data. The relaxation time was shown to increase with decreasing carrier density and to be shorter when the carrier-carrier scattering was treated dynamically rather than statically.

Date Published: 6 May 1994
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 2142, Ultrafast Phenomena in Semiconductors, (6 May 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.175897

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2142:
Ultrafast Phenomena in Semiconductors
David K. Ferry; Henry M. van Driel, Editor(s)