Self-consistent calculation of ionized impurity scattering in semiconductor quantum wires

Abstract

We calculate the electron elastic mean free path due to ionized impurity scattering in semiconductor quantum wires, using a scheme in which the screened ionized impurity potential and the electron screening self-consistently determine each other. By using a short-range scattering potential model, we obtain an {\sl exact} solution of the self-energy within the self-consistent Born and ``noncrossing" approximations. We find that, compared to the mean free path for the bare unscreened potential ${\ell }_{\mathrm{bare}}$, the calculated mean free path including self-consistent screening ${\ell }_{\mathrm{sc}}$ is {\sl substantially larger}, going as ${\ell }_{\mathrm{sc}}\sim {\ell }_{\mathrm{bare}}[\ln ({\ell }_{\mathrm{bare}}){]}^2$ for large ${\ell }_{\mathrm{bare}}$.

11 pages, 4 Postscript files (appended), Revtex Version 3.0, UMCP-CMT-Hu-9301