Hot-electron relaxation in GaAs quantum wells

Theoretical results are obtained for the energy loss of hot electrons to longitudinal optical phonons in quasi-two-dimensional semiconductor systems for carrier temperatures between 25 and 200 K. Quantum statistics, dynamical screening, plasmon-phonon coupling, Landau damping, hot-phonon effects, and quantum-well-width corrections are included in a many-body calculation. The results are in good agreement with experiments. We resolve an important controversy in the experimental literature, as well as show that the theory applies to a much wider range of temperature than what was thought earlier.