TRIPLE-ELECTRON COLLISIONS IN A QUANTUM-WIRE

The effect of intra-subband triple-electron collisions on the kinetics of a nondegenerate one-dimensional electron gas (1DEG) is investigate d since binary collisions give zero contribution to the relaxation. Th e scattering probabilities are derived from the Lippmann-Schwinger equ ation for the transition matrix. The corresponding relaxation frequenc y is of the order of eta n upsilon(T) min[1, (e(2)/epsilon(L)h upsilon (T))(3)], where eta = e(2)n/epsilon(L)T is the plasma parameter, n, T, and upsilon(T) are the concentration, temperature, and thermal veloci ty of the 1DEG, respectively, and epsilon(L) is the dielectric constan t. The relaxation frequency can reach a value of 10(12)/s, comparable to that by other scattering mechanisms, and indicates the importance o f the effect for the relaxation of a 1DEG.