Electron transport in quantum wire superlattices

Abstract

Electronic transport is theoretically investigated in laterally confined semiconductor superlattices using the formalism of non-equilibrium Green's functions. The transport properties are calculated for nanowire superlattices of varying diameters, from the quantum dot superlattice regime to the quantum well superlattice regime. Scattering processes due to electron-phonon couplings, phonon anharmonicity, charged impurities, surface and interface roughness and alloy disorder are included on a microscopic basis. Elastic scattering mechanisms are treated in a partial coherent way beyond the self-consistent Born approximation. The nature of transport along the superlattice is shown to depend dramatically on the lateral dimensionality. In the quantum wire regime, the electron velocity-field characteristics are predicted to deviate strongly from the standard Esaki-Tsu form, with pronounced current peaks due to integer and fractional resonances with optical phonons.

References in corpus (5)

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• THz intersubband electroluminescence from n-type Ge/SiGe quantum cascade structures
• Transport in serial spinful multiple-dot systems: The role of electron-electron interactions and coherences
• Electronic Transport and Thermopower in 2D and 3D Heterostructures--A Theory Perspective
• Non-equilibrium transport through a disordered molecular nanowire
• The non-linear terahertz response of hot electrons in low-dimensional semiconductor superlattices: Suppression of the polar-optical phonon scattering