Thermal saturation of band transport in a superlattice

Abstract

Thermal saturation of band transport in a GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice miniband is observed for the first time. The Drude conductivity of the miniband is measured as a function of temperature. As the temperature is raised so that ${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$T is significantly larger than the miniband width the conductivity is strongly quenched. Excellent quantitative agreement is obtained when these results are compared with a semiclassical Boltzmann theory of transport in a narrow band.