Monte Carlo simulations of carrier transport and relaxation in superlattices

Monte Carlo simulations of carrier transport through an undoped superlattice into an extended well are described. The results illustrate clearly the important role played by LO phonons in relaxing the energy and the desirability of designing structures which minimize the need for acoustic phonon participation. Attention is drawn to the fact that although, for the standard structures investigated, the LO phonon relaxation rate is relatively independent of the miniband and/or the quantum well eigenstates, the precise shape of the form-factor for an allowed LO transition could play an important role in deciding the relative number of ’slow’ carriers in an actual system.