Intrasubband and intersubband electron relaxation in semiconductor quantumwire structures - art. no. 045324

We calculate the intersubband and intrasubband many-body inelastic Coulomb scattering rates due to electron-electron interaction in two-subband semico nductor quantum wire structures. We analyze our relaxation rates in terms o f contributions from inter- and intrasubband charge-density excitations sep arately. We show that the intersubband (intrasubband) charge-density excita tions are primarily responsible for intersubband (intrasubband) inelastic s cattering. We identify the contributions to the inelastic-scattering rate c oming from the emission of the single-particle and the collective excitatio ns individually. We obtain the lifetime of hot electrons injected in each s ubband as a function of the total charge density in the wire.