The effect of transverse electric field on the electron-optical-phonon scattering rates in quantum wires

Abstract

Within the dielectric continuum approach for the optical phonons, we have calculated the effect of transverse electric field on the intra-subband electron-phonon scattering rates in a GaAs/AlAs rectangular quantum wire in the presence of an external electric field. The results show that the scattering rates of electron-confined LO phonon tend to decrease while the electric-field strength increases, but the scattering rates of electron-surface optical (SO) phonon tend to increase with the electric-field strength. The changes of these scattering rates become significant for wide quantum well wire (QWW) and sufficiently high fields.