Hot carrier relaxation in quantum well structures using Monte Carlo simulation

The relaxation process of high energy electrons, generated in the active layer of an ungraded separate-confinement heterostructure single quantum well laser diode by a radiative perturbation, is studied. Capture and escape are treated as mixed scattering events in a Monte Carlo simulation. The overlap integral between unconfined and confined states, used in the calculation of mixed scattering rates, is given. The beginning of the thermalization is very similar to the one in bulk material, but the weakness of the capture rate is responsible for a carrier bottleneck at the top of the well. The overall relaxation time appears very sensitive to detailed structure parameters, as the well thickness and the optical confinement layer width.