Ab initio calculations of the deformation potentials for intervalley phonon-assisted transitions in А III В V crystals with sphalerite structure

Abstract

Completely self-consistent ab initio calculations of scattering of electrons between the lowest minima of the conduction band by short-wavelength phonons are performed for the first time for a group of А III В V semiconductor crystals. The structure constants, electron and vibrational spectra, and probabilities of scattering are calculated for the crystals from unified positions within the electronic density functional method. The theory does not involve any phenomenological assumptions on positions of minima in the conduction band, effective carrier masses, interatomic forces, or scattering probabilities. The electron-phonon coupling constants (the deformation potentials) for actual Γ−X, Γ−L, and X−L transitions for scattering between the nonequivalent X−X and L−L valleys in the conduction bands of AlP, AlAs, AlSb, GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs, and InSb crystals with sphalerite structure are calculated. Results obtained are compared with theoretical calculations within the phenomenological rigid ion model and with those performed by the selfconsistent frozen phonon method.