EE 524 Nanoelectronic Devices

Home Work # 2
Question 1: Date Assigned: Sep 20, 2013 Due Date: Sep 25, 2013

Silicon conduction band minimum occurs along six equivalent <100> directions close to the edge of the Brillouin zone. The constant energy surfaces (also called valleys) have shape of ellipsoids as shown in the figure above. GaAs, on the other hand, has constant energy surface like a sphere. The other two are hypothetical materials named abc and xyz that have constant energy surfaces as shown above. Suppose each of these materials is used to make the channel of an ultrathin channel MOSFET. Due to ultrathin channel, electrons are confined in z direction just like that in an infinite potential well but are free to move in x and y directions. This will cause the continuous 3 dimensional conduction band to be split into a set of 2 dimensional conduction bands (called subbands). The energies of the bottom of these subband are illustrated above. Answer the following questions:

(a) What is the expressions for the energies of the bottom of the subbands? What is the difference in this expression for different valleys shown for each of the four materials? [hint: Think whether effective mass is different along various directions] (b) What would be the expression for E vs. k in the plane of the channel (i.e. xy plane) for each of the valleys in the four materials?

(c) In the case of Silicon, which set of the valleys will give the lowest energy for the bottom of the subband in part (a)?

Question 2:

Derive the expression for the density of states in energy for a 2-D semiconductor for states in the conduction band for the following dispersion relations. Assume a valley degeneracy of gv. (a) Assume a parabolic dispersion:

(b) Assume a non-parabolic band described by the so-called Kanes dispersion:

Question 3:

Assume a non-parabolic, 1D energy bandstructure described the Kanes dispersion:

(a) Sketch or produce MATLAB plot of E vs. k for two cases: (i) and (ii) For MATLAB plot, the energy range should be from 0 to 1eV and you can assume

(b) For this band structure, derive an expression of the velocity vx(E) as a function of energy E.

Question 4: