Effect of Electron Scattering on Second Derivative Ballistic Electron Emission Spectroscopy inAu/GaAs/AlGaAsHeterostructures
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Yi-Jen Chiu; Darryl L. Smith; C. Zheng; M. Kozhevnikov; Venkatesh Narayanamurti
- Source
- Physical Review Letters. 82:3677-3680
- Subject
- Materials science
Scattering
business.industry
General Physics and Astronomy
Heterojunction
Electron
Condensed Matter::Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Hall Effect
Condensed Matter::Materials Science
Semiconductor
Emission spectrum
Atomic physics
Spectroscopy
Electronic band structure
business
Electron scattering
- Language
- ISSN
- 1079-7114
0031-9007
We present a quantitative study of the second voltage derivative (SD) of ballistic electron emission spectra of Au/GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures to probe the effect of electron scattering on these spectra. Our analysis of the SD spectra shows that strong electron scattering occurs at the nonepitaxial Au/GaAs interface, leading to an experimentally observed redistribution of current among the electron transport channels. We also show that the effects of hot-electron scattering inside the semiconductor modify the spectra and are sensitive to the heterojunction band structure, its geometry, and temperature. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}