Hot-electron transport in GaAs-AlGaAs heterojunctions

Abstract

Hot-electron transport in a GaAs-AlGaAs heterojunction is studied by the use of a non-Boltzmann balance-equation approach recently developed. The occupation of the lowest and next lowest subbands and the Coulomb interactions between intrasubband and intersubband electrons are taken into account. We include the scattering by remote charged impurities, acoustic phonons (via deformation potential and piezoelectric coupling), and polar optical phonons in the force and energy balance equations to give the carrier mobility as a function of drift velocity and/or electric field. Theoretical results are in reasonably good agreement with experiments.