Experimental results on high-field parallel transport in GaAs/GaAlAs quantum well structures are presented. The results are compared with a theoretical model of high field transport involving non-drifting hot phonons and scattering from remote impurities and interface roughness. The latter two effects contribute to the relaxation of the electron momentum. It is also shown that non-drifting hot phonons with a fmite life-time reduce the energy relaxation and enhance the momentum relaxation. The enhancement of the momentum relaxation at high fields inhibits negative differential conductivity via real space transfer or intervalley transfer. This is observed in our samples. The reduction of the drift velocity at high fields is also detrimental to the speed of many devices which operate in the hot electron regime.

Date Published: 1 February 1991
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 1362, Physical Concepts of Materials for Novel Optoelectronic Device Applications II: Device Physics and Applications, (1 February 1991); doi: 10.1117/12.24466

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1362:
Physical Concepts of Materials for Novel Optoelectronic Device Applications II: Device Physics and Applications
Manijeh Razeghi, Editor(s)