The effect of electron effective mass mismatch on the electron - optical-phonon scattering rate in a quantum well structure
The effective mass mismatch of a conduction-band electron in a semiconductor quantum well structure brings about a novel confinement of the electron movement along the well-growth direction in addition to the conduction-band offset. Using the electron-optical-phonon interaction Hamiltonian of the dielectric continuum model, we calculate the scattering rates due to the interaction of the electron with the well, barrier and interface phonons respectively. By comparison with the corresponding results for the case without the electron effective mass mismatch it is shown that the electron effective mass mismatch has a remarkable influence on the scattering rate, especially for relatively high electron energy, and much attention should be paid to it.