Effects of scattering on two-dimensional electron gases in InGaAs/InAlAs quantum wells

The effects of different scattering on two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in lattice matched In _0.53Ga _0.47As/In _0.52Al _0.48As quantum wells with silicon δ-doped in one barrier layer have been investigated by means of magneto-transport measurements. For the studied samples, the 2DEGs have occupied two subbands. It is found that the dominant scattering mechanism is ionized impurities scattering for the two subbands' electrons. Besides the dominant scattering mechanism of ionized impurities scattering, Coulomb scattering also plays a role in scattering mechanism for both subbands. Both the transport scattering time and the quantum scattering time of the second subband are larger than those of the first subband. It is because that the electrons of the first subband are, on average, closer to the ionized impurities in the doped layer, they will be scattered more strongly than those in the second subband. Due to the electron wave functions for the second subband spread more widely in the quantum wells, the alloy disorder scattering is more important for the carriers in the second subband than that in the first subband.