Effect of electron scattering on second derivative ballistic electron emission spectroscopy in Au/GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures

Abstract

We present a quantitative study of the second voltage derivative (SD) of ballistic electron emission spectra of Au/GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures to probe the effect of electron scattering on these spectra. Our analysis of the SD spectra shows that strong electron scattering occurs at the nonepitaxial Au/GaAs interface, leading to an experimentally observed redistribution of current among the electron transport channels. We also show that the effects of hot-electron scattering inside the semiconductor modify the spectra and are sensitive to the heterojunction band structure, its geometry, and temperature.