Effect of Energy Loss Due to $1s \to 2p$ Excitation and Ionization of Neutral Impurities on the Non-Ohmic Characteristics of a Compound Semiconductor at Low Lattice Temperature

Abstract

At low lattice temperatures $\left( {T_{{\text{L}}} \le 20\,K} \right)$, an apparently low electric field may effectively serve as high enough to significantly perturb an electron ensemble in a semiconductor from the state of thermodynamic equilibrium with the lattice atoms. The energy loss rate by an electron of the ensemble through impact ionization and excitation of neutral impurities may turn out to be comparable with the loss rate through interactions with the prevalent phonons and this takes part in controlling the non-Ohmic characteristics of the material. The present analysis deals with the calculation of the net energy loss rate of an electron and the subsequent effective electron temperature characteristics. The results obtained for InSb are compared with other theoretical and available experimental data. The agreement with the experiments is quite satisfactory. Moreover, the effects of impact ionization and neutral impurities at low temperatures are indeed not always negligible.