Abstract
The effects of acoustic phonon scattering on the impact ionization rate of charge carriers in a semiconductor have been studied in this paper. The inelastic interactions of charge carriers with both deformation and piezoelectric acoustic phonons have been considered. An analytical expression of impact ionization rate has been developed by considering all possible types of inelastic collision mechanisms such as acoustic phonon scattering, optical phonon scattering, and inter-carrier scattering prior to the ionizing collision. The said expression has been used to calculate the impact ionization rate of electrons and holes in 4H-SiC as functions of electric field and doping concentration at room temperature. Numerical results show that the ionization rate of charge carriers deteriorates significantly due to the interactions of those with acoustic phonons. This deterioration is found to be more pronounced in hot carriers. The numerical results calculated from the present model have been compared with the ionization rate data calculated numerically using an earlier developed analytical expression of ionization rates, which does not take into account the acoustic phonon-scattering events. The calculated results have also been compared with earlier reported experimental data. It is observed that the numerical results obtained from the present model are in better agreement with the experimental results.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Acharyya, J.P. Banerjee, Appl. Nanosci. 4, 1 (2014)
A. Acharyya, S. Banerjee, J.P. Banerjee, J. Comput. Electron. 12(3), 511 (2013)
A. Acharyya, S. Ghosh, Int. J. Electron. 104(12), 1957 (2017)
M. Ghosh, M. Mondal, A. Acharyya, Adv. Optoelectron. 2013, 1 (2013)
B. You, A.Q. Huang, J.K.O. Sin, IEEE Trans. Electron Dev. 48(9), 2143 (2001)
S.M. Sze, Physics of semiconductor devices, 2nd edn. (Wiley, New York, 1981)
G. Gibbons, Avalanche-diode microwave oscillators (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973)
W.N. Grant, Solid State Electron. 16, 1189 (1973)
M. Ito, S. Kagawa, T. Kaneda, T. Yamaoka, J. Appl. Phys. 49, 4607 (1978)
C.W. Kao, C.R. Crowell, Solid State Electron. 23, 881 (1980)
I. Umebu, A.N.M.M. Chowdhury, P.N. Robson, Appl. Phys. Lett. 36, 302 (1980)
A.O. Konstantinov, Q. Wahab, N. Nordell, U. Lindefelt, Appl. Phys. Lett. 71, 90 (1997)
K. Kunihiro, K. Kasahara, Y. Takahashi, Y. Ohno, IEEE Electron Dev. Lett. 20, 608 (1999)
E.A. Konorova, Y.A. Kuznetsov, V.F. Sergienko, S.D. Tkachenko, A.K. Tsikunov, A.V. Spitsyn, Y.Z. Danyushevski, Sov. Phys. Semicond. 17, 146 (1983)
A.P. Dmitriev, A.O. Kanstantinov, D.P. Litvin, V.I. Sankin, Sov. Phys. Semicond. 17, 686 (1983)
R. Ghosh, S.K. Roy, Solid State Electron. 18, 945 (1975)
S.R. Singh, B.B. Pal, IEEE Trans Electron Dev. 32(3), 599 (1985)
P.A. Wolff, Phys. Rev. 95, 1415 (1954)
W. Shockley, Solid State Electron. 2, 35 (1961)
J.L. Moll, N.I. Meyer, Solid State Electron. 3, 155 (1961)
J.L. Moll, N.I. Meyer, Solid State Electron. 6, 147 (1963)
G.A. Baraff, Phys. Rev. 128, 2507 (1962)
B.K. Ridley, J. Phys. C Solid State Phys. 16, 3375 (1983)
A. Acharyya, J.P. Banerjee, J. Comput. Electron. 13, 917 (2014)
A. Bhowmick, A. Banerjee, A. Pandey, A. Yadav, P. Pallye, A. Acharyya, IETE J. Res. (2016). doi:10.1080/03772063.2016.1147390
A. Acharyya, S. Chatterjee, A. Das, A. Banerjee, A.R. Pandey, A. Yadav, J.P. Banerjee, J. Comput. Electron. 15, 34 (2016)
S. Midday, D.P. Bhattacharya, Phys. Scr. 83, 1 (2011)
D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 92(3), 626 (1953)
H. Frohlich, B.V. Paranjape, Proc. Phys. Soc. (London) B69, 21 (1956)
E.M. Conwell, High field in semiconductors, solid state physics supplement 9 (Academic, New York, 1967)
P. Mukherjee, D. Chatterjee, A. Acharyya, J. Comput. Electron. (2017). doi:10.1007/s10825-017-1014-7
Electronic archive: new semiconductor materials, characteristics and properties. http://www.ioffe.rssi.ru/SVA/NSM/Semicond/SiC/index.html. (2017). Accessed 6 June 2017
K.V. Vassilevski, K. Zekentes, A.V. Zorenko, L.P. Romanov, IEEE Electron Dev. Lett. 21, 485 (2000)
V.I. Sankin, Semiconductors 36(7), 717 (2002)
J.C. Burton, L. Sun, F.H. Long, Z.C. Feng, I.T. Ferguson, Phys. Rev. B 59(11), 7282 (1999)
A. Matulionis, J. Liberis, I. Matulioniene, H.Y. Cha, L.F. Eastman, M.G. Spencer, J. Appl. Phys. 96(11), 6439 (2004)
P.D. Yoder, V.D. Natoli, R.M. Martin, J. Appl. Phys. 73, 4378 (1993)
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Cooch Behar Government Engineering College, WB, India, for providing excellent research facilities for carrying out the present work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Acharyya, A. Diminution of impact ionization rate of charge carriers in semiconductors due to acoustic phonon scattering. Appl. Phys. A 123, 629 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1245-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1245-2