The effect of the electron-longitudinal optical phonons interaction on the photoionization in a quantum well

Using variational technique, we have calculated the photon energy dependence of the photoionization cross-section and the binding energy of a hydrogenic donor impurity in infinite-barrier quantum well (QW) as a function of well width, taking into account the interaction between electron and bulk longitudinal-optical (LO) phonons. The initial ground state and the final subband state wave functions are described, respectively, within the framework of the strong coupling treatment of the polaron theory and in;the Lee-Low-Pines approximation. The results indicate that the effects of the electron-LO phonon coupling on the binding energy and the spectral dependence of the cross-section are very significant. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.