(c) Dr Paul Kinsler. [Acknowledgements & Feedback]
This was started within the Department of Physics at the University of Sheffield, and involves a theoretical study of the effects of phonon scattering on exciton-polaritons by applying the quantum stochastic methods from quantum optics to semiconductor models.
This work is being done within the Microwaves and Photonics group at the University of Leeds, and involves theoretical collaboration with Dr P. Harrison and Dr R.W. Kelsall.
This is a more applied project, and involves applying existing theory of phonons in semiconductor microstructures to our terahertz emitter prototypes which are based on asymmetric quantum well designs. The most accurate theory seems to be the "hybrid phonon" model proposed by B.K. Ridley, which unified the prior and competing "dielectric continuum" and "hydrodynamic" models. However, for the cases we are considering, the dielectric continuum model is sufficiently accurate.
I have recalculated the LO, confined LO, and interface phonon potentials, potential normalisations from scratch, and then used Fermi's Golden Rule to work out the scattering rates for inter-subband and intra-subband electron-phonon scattering. I have checked this against existing results. Further, I have compared existing numerical results against my numerical results generated using customised programs.
At this point I am starting to generate new results: firstly for test asymetric quantum well structures, to see how the electron-phonon scattering behaves for a variety of step heights; and secondly for sets of prototype terahertz emitter structures to check the influence of multilayer phonon mode scattering. This second part is important, because most existing work assumes bulk-like phonon modes.
(
Research homepage;
)
Date=20000223 19990610 19980605 Author=P.Kinsler Created=19970702