HOT-ELECTRON SCATTERING WITH COLD-PLASMA IN GAAS FROM CW HOT-ELECTRON LUMINESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY

Continuous Wave (CW) hot electron luminescence (HEL) spectra indicate that hot electrons scatter predominantly with cold electrons rather than with hot electrons or hot holes. Two series of experiments are compared. In the first series the sample is GaAs:Be. Increasing the concentration of optically injected carriers results in a widening distribution of hot electrons due to scattering and to an increasing band-gap-related background. In the second series, we keep the injection of hot electrons low, but study different samples GaAs:Be:Si which contain a rising background of donor electrons. In this case the hot electron population widens in a comparable way, indicating that hot electrons scatter with electrons low in kinetic energy.