The phonon-assisted photon-drag effect in a two-dimensional semiconductor quantum-well structure

• Published in: Superlattices and microstructures Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 33 - 42
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, C., Fonseca, A.L.A., Agrello, D.A., Nunes, O.A.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2001; Elsevier
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Electron states and collective excitations in thin films, multilayers, quantum wells, mesoscopic and nanoscale systems; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; Physics; Quantum wells; quantum wells, electronic states, heterostructures, phonons, electronic transport; quantum wells, electronic states, heterostructures, phonons, electronic transport; Aluminium arsenides; Perturbation theory; Boltzmann equation; Gallium arsenides; Semiconductor materials; Interband transitions; Photon drag; Ternary compounds; Quantum wells; Phonons; Theoretical study; Binary compounds; Electron-phonon interactions; Feynman diagrams; Intraband transitions
• ISSN: 0749-6036; 1096-3677
• DOI: 10.1006/spmi.2000.0909

The phonon-assisted photon-drag effect in a two-dimensional semiconductor quantum well structure is investigated. By making use of second-order perturbation theory and the classical Boltzmann equation we found, by considering both intrasubband and the intersubband electronic transitions, that the electric field generated by the photon-drag effect in a typical GaAs–AlGaAs two-dimensional system is enhanced by almost one order of magnitude as compared with that of a bulk system. Moreover, the results can qualitatively account for the observed absorption spectra due to intersubband electronic transitions occurring in GaAs quantum wells.