Heating of cold electrons by a warm GaAs lattice: A novel probe of the carrier-phonon interaction

Abstract

Cooling of an electron-hole plasma after picosecond photoexcitation strongly decreases at carrier densities exceeding 1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{17}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$. In contrast, the reverse process of heating a cool electron-hole plasma via phonon absorption from the warm lattice is independent of carrier density up to 4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{17}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$, establishing the first experimental evidence for negligible screening of the Fr\"ohlich interaction.