Theory of Hot-Electron Transport in Strong Magnetic Fields

Abstract

A theory of the hot electron transport in strong magnetic fields is presented and is applied to the magnetophonon resonance (MPR) in semiconductors in high electric fields. The balance equations for energy and momentum are derived based on Zubarev’s theory of nonequilibirium density matrices without employing a conventional warm electron approximation. Explicit numerical results are presented for GaAs and splitting of the MPR peak and the reduction of MPR amplitude with the increase of the electric field are demonstrated. The drift velocity due to scattering from acoustic phonons is much smaller than that due to LO phonon scattering, showing that the quasi-elastic-inter-Landau-level scattering does not take place in this material.