Electron–acoustic-phonon scattering rates in rectangular quantum wires

Abstract

Electron--acoustic-phonon scattering in a rectangular quantum wire is studied. The Hamiltonian describing the deformation-potential interaction of confined acoustic phonons with carriers is derived by quantizing the appropriate, experimentally verified approximate compressional acoustic-phonon modes in a free-standing rectangular quantum wire. The scattering rate due to the deformation-potential interaction is obtained for GaAs quantum wires with a range of cross-sectional dimensions. The results demonstrate that a proper treatment of confined acoustic phonons may be essential to correctly model electron scattering rates at low energies in nanoscale structures.