High‐field transport in semiconductors based on eigenvalue solution to Boltzmann

equation
Srinivasan Krishnamurthy, A. Sher, and A.‐B. Chen

Citation: Applied Physics Letters 55, 1002 (1989); doi: 10.1063/1.101717

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.101717
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 HighBfield transport in semiconductors based on eigenvalue solution
to Boltzmann equation
Srinivasan Krishnamurthy and A. Sher
SRI International, Menlo Park, California 94025
A.-So Chen
Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849
(Received 22 May 1989; accepted for publication 27 June 1989)
The Boltzmann equation is solved by expanding the distribution function in terms of a finite
number of basis functions. The zero eigenvalue of the resulting matrix is solved for the hot-
electron distribution. This method arrives at the solution at least two orders of magnitude
faster than the commonly used Monte Carlo method. Using the scattering rates due to ionized
impurities, phonons, aHoy disorder, and intervalley scattering calculated from a realistic band
structure, we obtain velocity-field curves for various semiconductor alloys and compounds
without any adjustable parameters. The results are in good agreement with experiments.

The analytical solution to the Boltzmann transport
equation rarely exists except for a few simple and usually
unrealistic cases. However, numerical solutions can be ob-
tained by iterative techniques. 1,2 The most popular numeri-
cal technique is the Monte Carlo method in which an equiva-
lent solution is obtained by simulating the motion of one
electron in momentum space through a large number of scat-
tering processes,3 -5 While these methods are successful in
explaining various results numerically, they are extremely
time consuming, particularly when a fuH band structure is
used. Also, when the functional form of the scattering rates
is not known, the Monte Carlo technique will he much more
time consuming. Consequently, there has been a continuing
effort to develop faster numerical techniques. 6 - 9 These
methods either assume a known form of distribution func-
tion with adjustable parameters,6 they use expansions specif-
ic to the nature of the problem,7.H or they obtain an approxi-
mate solution by solving a large set of coupled equations.'}
In this letter we describe a much faster numerical meth-
od of solving the Boltzmann equation (BE) without resort-
ing to the electron temperature or effective mass approxima-
tions. This method is then used with various scattering rates
calculated with realistic band structures to obtain the veloc-
ity-field characteristics of various semiconductor com-
pounds and alloys. The results are then compared with ex-
periments.
Neglecting diffusion for the purpose of illustration, the
steady-state BE in the presence of an applied constant elec-
tric field is
~ V k f(k)'E = )' IS(k,k')j(k') - S(k',k)j(k) L (1)
Ii 1:'"
where S(k,k') is the scattering rate from the state k' to the
state k, E is the strength of the electric field, andJtk) is the
carrier distribution function. Now, we expand the distribu-
tion function in terms of a known set of basis functions,
cI>;(k), such thatf(k) = ~ C'¢i(k). We substitutcJtk) in
this form in to BE as given in Eq. (1), and multiply that hy
cI>; (k), then sum over alI k to get a matrix equation MC=O,
where M is an n X It matrix, C is a column matrix, and 0 is a
null matrix; n is the number of the basis function in the cho-
sen basis set. It is clear that the eigenvector corresponding to
the zero eigenvalue of the matrix M gives us the required
expansion coefficients to obtain the distribution function.
The drift velocity can then be calculated from
1
Vd =-
N k
I Vz (k)/(k), (2)
wherev z = dEkldkz andEk is the conduction-band energy at
k.
If the chosen set is complete, the zero eigenvalue is en-
sured, and the distribution function can be accurately oh-
tained. However, if the basis set contains a very large number
offunctions, then a numerically difficult diagonaHzation of a
very large matrix must be carried out. Hence, we need to
make an educated guess of the basis set that is finite and that
can accurately describe the distribution function at high
electric field strengths.
We use this eigenvalue method to obtain the velocity-
field curves in GaAs and InP compounds, and GalnAs,
InP As, and InPSb alloys. An accurate band structure of the
constituent material is obtained through the method devel-
oped by Chen and Sher,1O in which all long-range interac-
tions are included. The band structure is then fine tuned to
agree with experimental values of effective masses, various
optical transitions, and valley separations, The alloy band
structure is first calculated in the virtual crystal approxima-
tion and then corrected for alloy disorder in the coherent
potential approximation. to These full band structures are
used in the calculation of electron coupling constants, densi-
ties of final states for impurity scattering, phonon scattering,
alloy disorder, and deformation potential coupled interval-
ley scattering rates. 11-!3 In the calculation of these scattering
rates and in the solution to the BE, it is incorrect to sum over
the usuall/48th of the Brillouin zone (BZ). The symmetry
is hroken by the scattering process. Hence, the sum over k
states must be carried out over the entire BZ. While these
calculations are time consuming, they had to be evaluated
only once in this formalism. Also, the intervalley scattering
mediated by alloy, LO phonon, and impurity scattering are
naturally included in this calculation.
To obtain a solution to the BE, we assume the electric

1002 Appl. Phys. Lett. 55 (,OJ, 4 September 1989 0003-6951/89/361002-03$01,00 Cc) 1989 American Institute oj Physics 1002

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 field is in the z direction. The speed of the method depends
on a rational selection of the basis set. We choose two basis
functions (s and p z like) at each r, L, and X valley. Because
/.-~- ...... ,
;' "-
the L valleys are symmetrically located with respect to the
/
/ '" ""
field direction, the number of basis functions associated with '/
L valleys can be reduced to just two. However, we need two
sets of basis functions at X valleys; one set at the X valley in
the E direction, and the other set at the X vaHey perpendicu-
lar to the E direction. Hence, as a reasonable compromise
between completeness and simplicity, we use eight basis
functions in our set, given as follows: oL-~ __-L__-L__
- - THEORY
- - - EXPERIMENT

~ __L--J__
11
~

o 2 4 6
E [kV!cm]

where i is r, X, or L, N i is the normalization, and E'x and E'L
are energies at X and L valleys, respectively. Because the
basis set is incomplete, there is no assurance that M will have
a zero eigenvalue. We adapt an iterative procedure to mini-
mize the effect of the finiteness of the basis set. In all calcula-
tions reported here, we have used a simplified basis set with
a i = Pi = a for all i. This set yields accurate answers for the
low-to-moderate electric field strengths. It corresponds to
taking the effective temperature for the basis set to be the
same for alloys. Although this basis set will accurately de-
scribe the drifted Maxwellian at the corresponding tempera-
ture, we emphasize that this should not be construed to mean
that j(k) is approximated by a drifted Maxwellian at this
temperature. We varied a to obtain the zero eigenvalue. In
all cases, the zero eigenvalue is obtained in less than ten itera-
tions where each iteration takes approximately 3 cpu se-
conds on an Apollo DN-1Ooo0 computer. It may be noted
that this indicates an improvement of at least two orders of
magnitude in speed over the values previously reported us-
ing a matrix method with effective mass and parabolic band
structures. 9 The matrix method'} was also shown to have a
distinct speed advantage over the Monte CarIo method, par-
ticularly at high electric fields. Hence, the eigenvalue meth-
od described here is expected to be a few more orders of
magnitude faster than the Monte Carlo method to arrive at
an equally accurate solution to the BE.
The calculated velocity-field curves for the GaAs com-
pound are shown in Fig. 1. The lattice temperature and the
impurity concentration are assumed to be 300 K and
5 X 10 16 cm - 3, respectively. The impurity concentration was
adjusted to obtain the reported low-field mobility of 7500
cm 2 /V s in this compound. 14 The drift velocity increases
with the electric field to reach a maximum value of 2.3 X 10 7
cm/s at a threshold field of 4 kV fern, The v-E curves are
shown for electric field strengths less than 10 kVfcm. For
larger electric fields, one needs more basis functions than the
ones chosen here. However, we find that our calculated val-
ues are in excellent agreement with recent experiments 14 also
shown in Fig. 1. As our basis functions depend on energy and
k, the distribution function cannot he plotted as a function of
energy alone. We define g( £) such that
g(E') = ~.+-f(£k )b(c - £1.).
(3)
FIG.!. Calculated (solid line) and experimental (dashed linc) v-E curves
for bulk GaAs at a lattice temperature of 300 K and an impurity concentra-
tion of 5 X 10 1(, em -- " respectively.
We plot gee) as a function of e (see Fig. 2) tha.t we calculat-
ed using our distribution function (solid line) and the dis-
placed Maxwellian distribution (dashed line), which gives
correct u-E curves at 1 and 5 kV lern of electric field strength
in GaAs. At 1 kV /em of an applied electric field, the dis-
placed Maxwellian does not differ much from the calculated
distribution function. However, at 5 kV Icrn of an applied
electric field, the displaced Maxwellian distribution differs
substantially from solution to BE. Although the displaced
Maxwellian distribution gives the correct drift velocity at
this electric field, it is quantitatively different from an accu-
rate solution to BE. It exhibits the familiar bimodal behavior
that corresponds to rand L vaHey occupancy. The v-E
curves are calculated for the InP compound, and GalnAs,
InP As, and InPSb alloys. The calculated values of peak drift
velocity, vI" and the inverse of threshold field E 1- 1, are
shown in the units of GaAs values in Fig. 3. In general, cal-
culated vI' and ET are in good agreement with experiments.
For example, in GUO 47 Ina.53 As, the peak drift velocity and
->
i; ~ 10
a::
~ 5
0:::
~ 0 '---'-~-.I-
o 0,1 0.2
ENERGY (eV)
2 E = 5 kVlom
ENERGY!eV)
FIG, 2. Om geE) (solid line) is compared with that calculated using the
drifted Maxwellian distribution (dashed line) at a 5 k V/ern electric field in
(4) GaAsat 300 K. Corresponding curves are shown ill the inset for 1 kV /ern of
electric field strength.

1003 Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 55. No. iO, 4 September 1989 Krishnamurthy, Sher, and Chen 1003

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 2.0 r-----::>I""..-------~/~....,
/ Research Projects Agency through the Air Force Office of
1.0
I
" Scientific Research (AFOSR) contract F49620-85-C-0103,
oL-______- L______ ~~ ____ ~
GaAs InA. inP InSb
FIG. 3. Peak drift velocity and the inverse of threshold lield are shown in
the units ofGaAs values for various semiconductor compounds ami alloys.
threshold field obtained in different experiments lie between
2.2 and 3.2X 10 7 cm/s and 2.7 and 4.6 kV/cm, respective-
ly, 15-JO and our calculated value of velocity is 3.1 >< 10 7 em Is
at a threshold value of 3 kV /em. Our calculations are in
excellent agreement V'lith experiments by Marsh et al., 10 in
which a peak velocity of 3.1 X 107 cruls was measurcd at 2.9
kV Icrn of electric field. The agreement is considered to be
excellent even though our calculated values are obtained
without effective mass or electron temperature approxima-
tions and without any transport-related adjustable param-
eters, such as the deformation potential for intervalley scat-
tering, nonparabolicity factor, aHoy scattering potential, and
so Ollo We believe that we have included the important scat-
tering mechanisms for the present case. It is straightforward
to include other effects such as strain-induced band struc-
ture changes, compositional dustering,zl electron-electron
scattering, and impact ionization in our approach. This
method can, in principle, be generalized to study the effects
of spatially varying electric field and diffusion.
In conclusion, we developed a numerically more effi-
cient method of solving the Boltzmann equation and ob-
tained u-E curves in various alloys and compounds using fun
band structures. This method appears to arrive at the solu-
tion two to three orders of magnitude faster than other meth-
ods currently used.
1004 Appl. Phys. Lett, Vol. 55, No. 10,4 September 1989
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This work has been supported by the Defense Advanced
and by the AFOSR contract F49620-86-D-OOI8. The au-
thors thank Mark van Schiifgaarde for many valuable dis-
cussions.
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Krishnamurthy, Sher, and Chen 1004