Alloy-scattering and strain-fluctuation-scattering contributions to the low-temperature electron mobility in ternary quantum wells and heterostructures

Journal Article · Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.46.7931· OSTI ID:7164109

Lyo, S K; Fritz, I J ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

We present theory and data for the low-temperature electron mobility in ternary quantum wells (QW's). In our model the electrons are scattered from spatially fluctuating strain-induced potentials and alloy potentials arising from alloy disorder both in lattice-matched and strained QW's. We find that the mobility does not depend sensitively on the amount of the average strain in the In{sub {ital x}}Ga{sub 1{minus}{ital x}}As quantum well but on the strain fluctuation. Lower mobilities observed in strained quantum wells are explained in terms of possible clustering effects which may be more severe in strained systems: The theoretical results agree with our data from strained In{sub 0.2}Ga{sub 0.8}As/GaAs QW's for a clustered In-atom distribution. On the other hand, the recent data from lattice-matched In{sub 0.53}Ga{sub 0.47}As/In{sub 0.52}Al{sub 0.48}As heterostructures are reasonably explained for a microscopically random In-atom distribution without using the clustering assumption.

• OSTI ID: 7164109
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States), Vol. 46:12; ISSN 0163-1829
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
STRAINS
TRANSPORT THEORY
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
INDIUM ARSENIDES
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRON MOBILITY
FLUCTUATIONS
LATTICE PARAMETERS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0065-0273 K
TERNARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
ALLOY SYSTEMS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
INDIUM COMPOUNDS
MOBILITY
PARTICLE MOBILITY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
TEMPERATURE RANGE
VARIATIONS
360603* - Materials- Properties
360606 - Other Materials- Physical Properties- (1992-)