Confined electron-confined phonon scattering rates in wurtzite AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructures

We investigate theoretically confined electron-confined phonon scattering rates in three-layered planar wurtzite AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructures with free-surface boundary conditions. The thicknesses of the core and cladding layers are chosen to be a few nanometers to ensure phonon and electron spectrum modification due to spatial confinement. We have considered electron-phonon interactions via deformation and piezoelectric potentials. The scattering rates are calculated for both intra- and intersubband transitions of confined electrons. The influence of the built-in electric field, characteristic for GaN/AlN interfaces, on polarization and intensity of the electron-acoustic phonon interaction in heterostructures is discussed. Specific features of the deformation and piezoelectric scattering of electrons in wurtzite three-layered heterostructures and their differences from the scattering in homogenous slabs have been established. It has been shown that it is possible to tune the strength of the electron-phonon interaction in a desired way by varying the core and cladding layers thicknesses. The obtained results can be used for optimization of GaN-based heterostructures for electronic and spintronic applications. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.