The impact ionization of excitonic states is studied in epitaxial GaN films
and GaN/AlGaN quantum well structures. The investigation is carried out by
optical methods involving the observation of quenching of the exciton phot
oluminescence under an applied electric field. It is found that impurity sc
attering rules the momentum and energy relaxation, rather than the acoustic
phonon scattering. The effective mean free path of hot electrons is estima
ted. In GaN/AlGaN quantum wells the mean free paths of hot electrons appear
to be an order of magnitude larger than those of GaN films due to the decr
ease in scattering probability of the electron in the two-dimensional case.