Carrier Scattering at Low Electric Fields

Abstract

Carrier scattering, originating from deviations from ideal lattice periodicity, acts as a damping process for carrier motion. Both elastic and inelastic scattering involve a large variety of scattering centers. Carriers are scattered by acoustic and optical phonons, at neutral or charged impurities, at interfaces, and at other scattering centers. Most scattering events are elastic, changing only the momentum of a carrier but not its energy. Inelastic scattering involves optical phonons and intervalley scattering; in these processes carriers lose much of their energy to the lattice.