Real-space transfer from quantum wells by polar optical phonon scattering

Abstract
We calculate the rate at which electrons bound in a semiconductor quantum well are scattered out of the well by absorption or emission of polar optical phonons. This escape rate is important in real-space transfer devices and as a loss mechanism in high electron mobility transistors. Both quantum confinement effects and the two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) nature of the scattering are included. For all but very shallow wells, the real-space transfer rate is much smaller than either the bulk (3D) scattering rate or the confined (2D) scattering rate. Quantum resonances in the final state result in oscillations in the scattering rate as a function of electron energy.