Negative lateral conductivity of hot electrons in a biased superlattice

A. Hernández-Cabrera, P. Aceituno, F. T. Vasko
2009 Physical Review B  
Nonequilibrium electron distribution in a superlattice subjected to a homogeneous electric field (biased superlattice with equipopulated levels) is studied within the tight-binding approximation, taking into account the scattering by optical and acoustic phonons and by lateral disorder. It is found that the distribution versus the in-plane kinetic energy depends essentially on the ratio between the Bloch energy and the optical phonon energy. The in-plane conductivity is calculated for low-doped
more » ... structures at temperatures 4.2 K and 20 K. The negative conductivity is found for bias voltages corresponding to the Bloch-phonon resonance condition.
doi:10.1103/physrevb.79.235312 fatcat:oyovs76vfrc3lmrtqmi46ewd6e