Home | About Journal | Web Links | E-mail Alerts | RSS RSS Icon | Browse
Previous Article Next Article

High-Field Transport in an Electron-Hole Plasma: Transition from Ballistic to Drift Motion

Source: Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 256602 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.256602

Published 15 December 2011

PACS
  • 72.20.Ht
    High-field transport and nonlinear effects (semiconductors/insulators)
  • 72.80.Ey
    Electrical conductivity of III-V and II-VI semiconductors
  • 78.47.J-
    Ultrafast pump/probe spectroscopy (<1 ps) in condensed matter
  • YEAR: 2011
PUBLICATION DATA
ISSN:
1553-9601 (online)
Publisher:
AIP is a member of CrossRef APS
P. Bowlan,1 W. Kuehn,1 K. Reimann,1 M. Woerner,1 T. Elsaesser,1 R. Hey,2 and C. Flytzanis3
1Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie, 12489 Berlin, Germany
2Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik, 10117 Berlin, Germany
3Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain, École Normale Supérieure, 75231 Paris, France
The time evolution of high-field carrier transport in bulk GaAs is studied with intense femtosecond THz pulses. While ballistic transport of electrons occurs in an n-type sample, a transition from ballistic to driftlike motion is observed in an electron-hole plasma. This onset of friction is due to the holes, which are heated by THz absorption. Theoretical calculations, which reproduce the data quantitatively, show that both electron-hole scattering and local-field effects in the electron-hole plasma are essential for the time-dependent friction.
History: Received 1 July 2011; published 15 December 2011
Digital Object Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.256602
ADVERTISEMENT