Optical phonon interaction effects in layered semiconductor structures

Abstract

Various aspects of the electron-LO-phonon interaction effects on the electronic properties of a single two-dimensional electron layer (as occurring, for example, in artificially structured single quantum wells or heterojunctions made of III–V or II–VI semiconducting materials) are discussed theoretically. In particular, perturbation theory is carried to the second order in the coupling constant to obtain the two-dimensional polaron energy in the weak-coupling limit. Intermediate coupling (the so-called Lee-Low-Pines theory) and strong coupling theories for the two-dimensional polaron problem are developed and interpolation (Padé approximations) formulae valid for arbitrary coupling are derived. Effects of the band non-parabolicity and of the free-carrier screening on the weak-coupling theory are discussed. The real and the imaginary parts of the two-dimensional polaron self-energy are obtained in a many-body perturbation calculation. Comparison with the known three-dimensional results is made wherever possible, showing that the electron-LO-phonon interaction effects are substantially enhanced in confined structures. Explicit formulas valid for two-dimensional systems are given for various polaron parameters like the binding energy, the effective mass, the scattering rate, the average phonon density in the polaron cloud, etc.