Microscopic simulation of hot-carrier filtering in InAs-InP nanowire heterostructures

We report on a microscopic quantum transport simulation of hot-carrier filtering across potential barriers formed by InP-InAs heterostructures in InAs nanowires with spatially localized monochromatic illumination. Qualitative agreement with the experimentally observed dependence of the extracted current on photon energy and localized source position is demonstrated. In addition, the impact on the hot-carrier extraction efficiency of carrier relaxation due to electron-phonon interaction is analyzed, and the inadequacy of the macroscopic drift-diffusion picture is confirmed.