Hot ballistic transport and phonon emission in a two-dimensional electron gas

Abstract

Hot-electron transport in a 2D electron gas is investigated as a function of the electrons excess energy. The inelastic mean free path at energies below the longitudinal-optical-phonon energy is found to be an order of magnitude longer than theoretical predictions. For higher injection energies, LO-phonon emission is found to be the main scattering mechanism. This, together with the ballistic motion for energies below the phonon energy, leads to previously unobserved periodic oscillations in the maximum energy of hot electrons as a function of their injection energy. © 1989 The American Physical Society.