Review Article
H. Arabshahi
Abstract
We study how electrons, initially in thermal equilibrium, drift under the action of an applied electric field within bulk zincblende InAsxP1-x, InAs and InP. Calculations are made using a nonparabolic effective mass energy band model, Monte Carlo simulation that includes all of the major scattering mechanisms. The band parameters used in the simulation are extracted from optimized pseudopotential band calculations to ensure excellent agreement with experimental information and ab-initio band models. The effects of alloy scattering on the electron transport physics are examined. For all materials, it is found that electron velocity overshoot only occurs when the electric field is increased to a value above a certain critical field, unique to each material. This critical field is strongly dependent on the material parameters. Transient velocity overshoot has also been simulated, with the sudden application of fields up to 1600 kVm-1, appropriate to the gate-drain fields expected within an operational field effect transistor. The electron drift velocity relaxes to the saturation value of about 1.5´105 ms-1 within 4 ps, for all crystal structures. The steady-state and transient velocity overshoot characteristics are in fair agreement with other recent calculations.