Cooling electrons in semiconductor devices: A model of evaporative emission

We discuss the theory of cooling electrons in solid-state devices via “evaporative emission.” Our model is based on filtering electron subbands in a quantum-wire device. When incident electrons in a higher-energy subband scatter out of the initial electron distribution, the system equilibrates to a different chemical potential and temperature than those of the incident electron distribution. We show that this re-equilibration can cause considerable cooling of the system. We discuss how the device geometry affects the final electron temperatures, and consider factors relevant to possible experiments. We demonstrate that one can therefore induce substantial electron cooling due to quantum effects in a room-temperature device. The resulting cooled electron population could be used for photodetection of optical frequencies corresponding to thermal energies near room temperature.