Direct measurements of the electron-acoustic phonon interaction in GaAs quantum wire structures

In this paper we describe new direct measurements of the emission and absorption of acoustic phonons by quasi-one-dimensional electrons in GaAs quantum wire structures. The measurements were made using heat-pulse techniques: for the absorption experiments, nonequilibrium phonons were generated using a metal-film resistive heater and the absorption detected via the change in conductivity induced in the quantum wire itself (phonoconductivity); in the emission experiments, the electrons in a quantum wire array were heated electrically and the emitted phonons detected by superconducting bolometers.