Electron scattering due to confined and extended acoustic phonons in a quantum wire

Electron scattering due to confined and extended acoustic phonons is analytically investigated for a quasi-one-dimensional GaAs quantum wire embedded within bulk AlAs. It is found that the deformation coupling between electrons and confined phonons is extremely small in comparison with that between electrons and extended phonons. Consequently, the electron scattering processes are governed by the extended phonons, and the magnitude and electron energy dependence of the scattering rates are almost the same as those due to the usual three-dimensional bulk phonons.