Impurity-assisted 2D-3D transfer of hot electrons

Abstract

A microscopic theory is presented for the impurity-assisted real-space transfer of hot electrons between states bound in the potential wells of multiple doping layers and states extending over the barriers. We find that 2D-3D intersubband scattering on impurities by far dominates phonon-mediated transfer processes for a multiply -doped GaAs structure. The influence of the transfer on the transport parallel to the layers is investigated using microscopic balance equations. The resulting differential conductivity compares well with experimental observations.