LATTICE-CONTROLLED ELECTRON-TRANSPORT CHARACTERISTICS IN QUANTIZED SURFACE-LAYERS AT LOW-TEMPERATURE

A theory of intravalley acoustic scattering of the carriers in a non-d egenerate two-dimensional electron gas is developed here under the con dition of low lattice temperature when the assumptions of the well-kno wn traditional theory are not valid. The scattering rates thus obtaine d are then used to estimate the zero-field mobility characteristics in an n-channel Si inversion layer. I is found that the finite energy of the phonons makes the energy and lattice temperature dependence of th e scattering rate, and consequently the lattice temperature dependence of the mobility, signifcantly different from what follows, in the lig ht of traditional theory which assumes equipartition law for the phono n distribution and neglects the phonon energy in comparison to the car rier energy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.