Carrier Heating in Lead Chalcogenides

Abstract

Several carrier heating mechanisms in lead chalcogenide semiconductors are discussed on the basis of a drifted Fermi distribution. Taking into account scattering processes on renormalized optical phonons, acoustic phonons, and impurities, numerical results are presented for the drift velocity in an electric field and compared with experiment. The increase in carrier temperature is given in the case of optical excitation and carrier injection. All calculations are performed within the Kane-band structure model.