The piezoelectric scattering rate of the free carriers in a semiconductor is investigated at low lattice temperatures when the approximations of the well-known traditional theory are not valid. The calculations are carried out for an isotropic semiconductor with a parabolic law of dispersion and a scalar effective mass. Numerical calculations are made for InSb at 1, 4, 20, and 50 K. The results are interesting, being significantly different from those that follow from the traditional theory and are also useful for the study of the low-temperature transport characteristics in pure compound semiconductors having no inversion symmetry.

• Received 13 February 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.39.13521