Electron–Phonon Quantum Kinetics: Relaxation in the Presence of an Electric Field

Abstract

The carrier generation and relaxation dynamics in a quantum wire in the presence of a constant electric field along the wire direction is studied in a quantum kinetic model based on the density matrix approach. Besides energy-nonconserving transitions at short times, the intracollsional field effect is included both for carrier–light and carrier–phonon interaction. We show that field-assisted generation and relaxation leads to shifts of the peaks in the distribution function of the generated carriers and of the phonon replicas due to the influence on the quantum mechanical interference process.