Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 67, No. 12, pp. 7399-7403, June 1990.

(Received 6 November 1989; accepted for publication 28 February 1990)

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We present results of ensemble Monte Carlo simulations of the initial femtosecond dynamics of hot-carrier relaxation and scattering processes in bulk GaAs. Contributions of each operative scattering mechanism to the primary stage of carrier relaxation are investigated by turning them on or off separately. We find that when scattering to both L and X valleys is energetically possible, the initial relaxation process, which occurs on a time scale of ~ 50 fs, is dominated by the intervalley scattering out of the G valley, but cannot be described by a single, averaged scattering time. When the carriers are excited between the X and L valleys, thermalization occurs on a time scale of ~140 fs, which is mainly due to G -L intervalley scattering, and then, optical-phonon and e-e scatterings start to contribute in the relaxation. At low temperatures, however, optical-phonon scattering plays only a secondary role.

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