Many-body theory for proton-induced point-defect effects on losses of electron energy and photons in quantum wells

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive many-body theoretical framework to analyze how point defects impact energy loss and optical absorption in quantum wells, incorporating defect dynamics and potential applications in space electronics.

Contribution

It introduces a combined model integrating defect effects, diffusion-reaction, and molecular dynamics to predict defect influence on quantum well device performance in space environments.

Findings

Defect density significantly affects energy-loss spectra.

Screening effects modify defect-electron interactions.

Model predicts defect distributions and device lifetime impacts.

Abstract

The effects of point defects on the loss of either energies of ballistic electron beams or incident photons are studied by using a many-body theory in a multi-quantum-well system. This includes the defect-induced vertex correction to a bare polarization function of electrons within the ladder approximation as well as the intralayer and interlayer screening of defect-electron interactions are also taken into account in the random-phase approximation. The numerical results of defect effects on both energy-loss and optical-absorption spectra are presented and analyzed for various defect densities, number of quantum wells, and wave vectors. The diffusion-reaction equation is employed for calculating distributions of point defects in a layered structure. For completeness, the production rate for Frenkel-pair defects and their initial concentration are obtained based on atomic-level molecular-dynamics simulations. By combining defect-effect, diffusion-reaction and molecular-dynamics models proposed in this paper with a space-weather forecast model for the first time, it will be possible to enable specific designing for electronic and optoelectronic quantum devices that will be operated in space with radiation-hardening protection, and therefore, will effectively extend the lifetime of these satellite onboard electronic and optoelectronic devices.