Hot Electron Effects in Microstructures

Abstract

A series of new devices generically called “hot electron transistors” is based on the idea of improving the device performance by injecting fast electrons into thin base regions. We present here a theoretical study, based on a Monte Carlo simulation, of the characteristic energy and momentum losses of hot electrons injected into a doped region, as found for example in the planar doped barrier (PDB) and in the tunneling hot electron transfer amplifier (THETA) devices. The interaction between the injected electrons and the background of cold carriers is shown to be a very effective channel of dissipation. The full self-consistent simulation of the THETA device is also presented.