Theoretical assessment of electronic transport in InN

Among the group-III nitrides, InN displays markedly unusual electronic transport characteristics due to its smaller effective mass, high peak velocity and high background electron concentration. First, a non-local empirical pseudopotential band structure of InN is obtained in the light of recent experimental and first-principles results. This is utilized within an ensemble Monte Carlo framework to illuminate the interesting transport properties. It is observed that InN has a peak velocity which is about 75% higher than that of GaN while at higher fields its saturation velocity is lower than that of GaN. Because of the strongly degenerate regime brought about by the high background electron concentration, the electron-electron interaction is also investigated, but its effect on the steady-state and transient velocity-field characteristics is shown to be negligible. Finally, hot phonon generation due to excessive polar optical phonon production in the electron scattering and relaxation processes is accounted for. The main findings are the appreciable reduction in the saturation drift velocity and the slower recovery from the velocity overshoot regime. The time evolution of the hot phonon distribution is analysed in detail and it is observed to be extremely anisotropic, predominantly along the electric force direction. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Comparative analysis of zinc-blende and wurtzite GaN for full-band polar optical phonon scattering and negative differential conductivity

For high-power electronics applications, GaN is a promising semiconductor. Under high electric fields, electrons can reach very high energies where polar optical phonon (POP) emission is the dominant scattering mechanism. So, we undertake a full-hand analysis of POP scattering of conduction-hand electrons based on an empirical pseudopotential band structure. To uncover the directional variations, we compute POP emission rates along high-symmetry directions for the zinc-blende (ZB) crystal phase of GaN. We also compare the results with those of the wurtzite phase. In general, the POP scattering rates in the zinc-blende phase are lower than the wurtzite phase. Our analysis also reveals appreciable directional dependence, with the Γ-L direction of ZB GaN being least vulnerable to POP scattering, characterized by a scattering time of 11 fs. For both crystal phases, we consider the negative differential conductivity possibilities driven by the negative effective mass part of the band structure. According to our estimation, for the ZB phase the onset of this effect requires fields above ∼ 1 MV/cm. © 2000 American Institute of Physics

Electron momentum and energy relaxation rates in GaN and AlN in the high-field transport regime

Momentum and energy relaxation characteristics of electrons in the conduction band of GaN and AlN are investigated using two different theoretical approaches corresponding to two high electric-field regimes, one up to 1-2 MV/ cm values for incoherent dynamics, and the other at even higher fields for coherent dynamics where semiballistic and ballistic processes become important. For the former, ensemble Monte Carlo technique is utilized to evaluate these rates as a function of electron energy up to an electric-field value of 1 MV/cm (2 MV/cm) for GaN (AlN). Momentum and energy relaxation rates within this incoherent transport regime in the presence of all standard scattering mechanisms are computed as well as the average drift velocity as a function of the applied field. Major scattering mechanisms are identified as polar optical phonon (POP) scattering and the optical deformation potential (ODP) scattering. Roughly, up to fields where the steady-state electron velocity attains its peak value, the POP mechanism dominates, whereas at higher fields ODP mechanism takes over. Next, aiming to characterize coherent dynamics, the total out-scattering rate from a quantum state (chosen along a high-symmetry direction) due to these two scattering mechanisms are then computed using a first-principles full-band approach. In the case of POP scattering, momentum relaxation rate differs from the total out-scattering rate from that state; close to the conduction-band minimum, momentum relaxation rate is significantly lower than the scattering rate because of forward-scattering character of the intravalley POP emission., However, close to the zone boundary the difference between these two rates diminishes due to isotropic nature of intervalley scatterings. Finally, a simple estimate for the velocity-field behavior in the coherent transport regime is attempted, displaying a negative differential mobility due to the negative band effective mass along the electric-field direction

High-energy electron relaxation and full-band electron dynamics in aluminium nitride

Material properties of AlN, particularly its wide band gap around 6 eV, warrant its operation in the high-field transport regimes reaching MV/cm fields. In this theoretical work, we examine the full-band scattering of conduction band electrons in AlN due to polar optical phonon (POP) emission, which is the main scattering channel at high fields. First, we obtain the band structure for the wurtzite phase of AlN using the empirical pseudopotential method. Scattering rates along the full length of several high-symmetry directions are computed efficiently through the Lehmann-Taut Brillouin zone integration technique. In order to shed light on the behaviour of the velocity-field characteristics at extremely high electric fields, in the order of a few MV/cm, we resort to an Esaki-Tsu estimation. Comparison of these results for AlN is made with our similar work on GaN. With typically more than 50% higher POP scattering rate compared to GaN, AlN has poorer high-field prospects. Availability of these data for AlN and GaN paves the way for practical assessment of the high-energy electron dynamics for the ternary alloy, AlGaN. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Auger decay of degenerate and Bose-condensed excitons in Cu2_2O

We study the non-radiative Auger decay of excitons in Cu$_2$O, in which two excitons scatter to an excited electron and hole. The exciton decay rate for the direct and the phonon-assisted processes is calculated from first principles; incorporating the band structure of the material leads to a relatively shorter lifetime of the triplet state ortho excitons. We compare our results with the Auger decay rate extracted from data on highly degenerate triplet excitons and Bose-condensed singlet excitons in Cu$_2$O.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, figures available from G. Kavoulaki

Quantum saturation and condensation of excitons in Cu2_2O: a theoretical study

Recent experiments on high density excitons in Cu$_2$O provide evidence for degenerate quantum statistics and Bose-Einstein condensation of this nearly ideal gas. We model the time dependence of this bosonic system including exciton decay mechanisms, energy exchange with phonons, and interconversion between ortho (triplet-state) and para (singlet-state) excitons, using parameters for the excitonic decay, the coupling to acoustic and low-lying optical phonons, Auger recombination, and ortho-para interconversion derived from experiment. The single adjustable parameter in our model is the optical-phonon cooling rate for Auger and laser-produced hot excitons. We show that the orthoexcitons move along the phase boundary without crossing it (i.e., exhibit a ``quantum saturation''), as a consequence of the balance of entropy changes due to cooling of excitons by phonons and heating by the non-radiative Auger two-exciton recombination process. The Auger annihilation rate for para-para collisions is much smaller than that for ortho-para and ortho-ortho collisions, explaining why, under the given experimental conditions, the paraexcitons condense while the orthoexcitons fail to do so.Comment: Revised to improve clarity and physical content 18 pages, revtex, figures available from G. Kavoulakis, Physics Department, University of Illinois, Urban