ELECTRON-PHONON SCATTERING IN AN ASYMMETRIC DOUBLE-BARRIER RESONANT-TUNNELING STRUCTURE

We calculate the electron-phonon scattering rate for an asymmetric dou ble barrier resonant tunneling structure based on dielectric continuum theory, including all phonon modes, and show that interface phonons c ontribute much more to the scattering rate than do bulk-like LO phonon s for incident energies which are approximately within an order of mag nitude of the Fermi energy. The maximum scattering rate occurs for inc ident electron energies near the quantum well resonance. Subband nonpa rabolicity has a significant influence on electron-phonon scattering i n these structures. We show that the relaxation time is comparable to the dwell time of electrons in the quantum well for a typical resonant tunneling structure.