SIMPLIFIED MICROSCOPIC MODEL FOR ELECTRON OPTICAL-PHONON INTERACTIONSIN QUANTUM-WELLS

A simplified microscopic model of optical phonons in dimensionally con fined structures is formulated and applied to calculate electron-optic al-phonon scattering rates in GaAs/AlAs quantum wells. For this simpli fied model which circumvents performing a complicated ab initio calcul ation of the force constants at the interface, it is demonstrated that the resulting dispersion relation and scattering rates for electron-o ptical-phonon interactions agree very well with those obtained from de tailed ab initio studies. It is also shown that for GaAs/A]As structur es, the macroscopic dielectric continuum model provides a good approxi mation to the scattering rate predicted by the microscopic models.