Direct observation of the LO phonon bottleneck in wide GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells

Ben Murdin; W. Heiss; C. J G M Langerak; S. C. Lee; I. Galbraith; G. Strasser; E. Gornik; M. Helm; C. R. Pidgeon

Direct observation of the LO phonon bottleneck in wide GaAs/Al_xGa_1-xAs quantum wells

Ben Murdin, W. Heiss, C. J G M Langerak, S. C. Lee, I. Galbraith, G. Strasser, E. Gornik, M. Helm, C. R. Pidgeon

School of Engineering & Physical Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

140 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report the direct observation of a bottleneck in electron cooling in wide GaAs quantum wells. Intersubband lifetimes t and their dependence on intensity, lattice temperature T_L, and well width have been measured using a ps excite-probe technique in wells with subband separation less than the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy. Above an electron temperature of about T_e=35 K the lifetime depends on T_e and is determined by LO-phonon emission. Below this bottleneck temperature acoustic phonons dominate the plasma cooling. An energy balance model of these interactions, with no adjustable parameters, gives good agreement with our results. At electron temperatures below 35 K we determine t=500 and 200 ps for samples of subband energy 19.5 and 26.6 meV, respectively.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	5171-5176
Number of pages	6
Journal	Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Volume	55
Issue number	8
Publication status	Published - 15 Feb 1997

Cite this

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title = "Direct observation of the LO phonon bottleneck in wide GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells",

abstract = "We report the direct observation of a bottleneck in electron cooling in wide GaAs quantum wells. Intersubband lifetimes t and their dependence on intensity, lattice temperature TL, and well width have been measured using a ps excite-probe technique in wells with subband separation less than the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy. Above an electron temperature of about Te=35 K the lifetime depends on Te and is determined by LO-phonon emission. Below this bottleneck temperature acoustic phonons dominate the plasma cooling. An energy balance model of these interactions, with no adjustable parameters, gives good agreement with our results. At electron temperatures below 35 K we determine t=500 and 200 ps for samples of subband energy 19.5 and 26.6 meV, respectively.",

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T1 - Direct observation of the LO phonon bottleneck in wide GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells

AU - Murdin, Ben

AU - Heiss, W.

AU - Langerak, C. J G M

AU - Lee, S. C.

AU - Galbraith, I.

AU - Strasser, G.

AU - Gornik, E.

AU - Helm, M.

AU - Pidgeon, C. R.

PY - 1997/2/15

Y1 - 1997/2/15

N2 - We report the direct observation of a bottleneck in electron cooling in wide GaAs quantum wells. Intersubband lifetimes t and their dependence on intensity, lattice temperature TL, and well width have been measured using a ps excite-probe technique in wells with subband separation less than the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy. Above an electron temperature of about Te=35 K the lifetime depends on Te and is determined by LO-phonon emission. Below this bottleneck temperature acoustic phonons dominate the plasma cooling. An energy balance model of these interactions, with no adjustable parameters, gives good agreement with our results. At electron temperatures below 35 K we determine t=500 and 200 ps for samples of subband energy 19.5 and 26.6 meV, respectively.

AB - We report the direct observation of a bottleneck in electron cooling in wide GaAs quantum wells. Intersubband lifetimes t and their dependence on intensity, lattice temperature TL, and well width have been measured using a ps excite-probe technique in wells with subband separation less than the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy. Above an electron temperature of about Te=35 K the lifetime depends on Te and is determined by LO-phonon emission. Below this bottleneck temperature acoustic phonons dominate the plasma cooling. An energy balance model of these interactions, with no adjustable parameters, gives good agreement with our results. At electron temperatures below 35 K we determine t=500 and 200 ps for samples of subband energy 19.5 and 26.6 meV, respectively.

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M3 - Article

SN - 1550-235X

VL - 55

SP - 5171

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JO - Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

JF - Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

IS - 8

ER -

Direct observation of the LO phonon bottleneck in wide GaAs/Al_xGa_1-xAs quantum wells

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