Electron–LO-phonon scattering rates in semiconductor quantum wells

We calculate scattering rates for an electron interacting with polar optical phonons in a semiconductor quantum well based on a microscopic lattice-dynamics approach for the phonons. We employ an analytic approximation to lattice-dynamics results given by Huang and Zhu for quantum-well phonons. The resulting electron relaxation rates are compared with the rates obtained by employing ``slab'' and ``guided'' phonon modes which were used in previous studies. The intrasubband and intersubband electron relaxation rates are given as functions of quantum-well width, and the relative contributions of the confined and the interface modes are discussed for the three different phonon models.