University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics

Prof. J. Bokor

Electron-phonon scattering (Finish Lundstrom Chapter 2)

Deformation potentials The mechanism of electron-phonon coupling is treated as a perturbation of the band energies due to the lattice vibration. Equilibrium atomic positions: R 1, R 2, R 3, Lattice vibrations cause perturbations about equilibrium: R + R . Energy bands shift locally due to perturbation. In a linear approximation: R E c = D c ----a R E v = D v ----a D c, D v are constants known as deformation potentials. Lattice vibration waves lead to sinusoidal variations E. These mix Bloch waves for the electrons which leads to scattering. We will use E as a perturbation and then apply Fermis Golden Rule to get the scattering rates. Energy and momentum conservation We consider inelastic scattering where an electron makes a transition from momentum p to p involving emission or absorption of a phonon q: Energy conservation:

+ sign phonon absorption - sign phonon emission Assuming spherical, parabolic bands, and intra-valley scattering (i.e. both initial and final electron states are within the same parabolic band): (1) Momentum conservation tells us that:

Electron phonon scattering Handout.fm

University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics _ p' = p h q take

Prof. J. Bokor

_ 2 _2 2 = p + h q 2h pq cos compare (1) & (2) to obtain:

(2)

_ _ _2 2 2m h = h q 2h pq cos simplifying: _ h q = 2p + cos ------qv e pwhere v e = ------ . m

(3)

(3) sets min, max values for phonon wave vectors via Intravalley acoustic phonon scattering. = qv s v s : sound velocity

1 cos 1 optical

vs _ h q = 2p cos ---+ ve q max : = = 0 absorption acoustic q /a

emission

Typically, v s 10 cm/sec and v e 10 cm/sec

(300K). So,

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University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics

Prof. J. Bokor

p' _ h q = 2p 2m v e magnitude of q max = --------------_ h

nearly elastic

7 For m 0.5m o , with v e 10 cm/sec , we find

where a is taken as 5 . Thus, for intravalley acoustic phonon scattering, the participating phonons are near zone center. Energy transfer _ _ 3 E max = h max = h q max v s 10 eV , which is small, so we find that intravalley acoustic phonon scattering is nearly elastic Intravalley optical phonon scattering Optic phonon energies are in the range of 30 - 50meV, so optic phonon scattering is definitely inelastic. Once again applying the conservation law (3):

o _ 2 h q + 2pq cos 2p ----- = 0 ve Solving for q: _ 2 2 2p cos 4p cos 8h o m q = ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------_ 2h (only the - sqrt term is physical, since q is a magnitude, hence must be positive. So:

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University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics

Prof. J. Bokor

_ h q = p cos + + = p [ cos + +

_ 2 2m cos h o --------- 2 p cos h o E ]

2

for room temp E ( h o ) 2 hq max 2.7p , which again involves phonons near zone center since the electron energy is usually thermal, hence the electron momentum is small.

Scattering rates Fermi golden rule: 2 2 S ( p, p' ) = ----- H pp' ( E ( p' ) E ( p ) h q ) + h For deformation potential scattering In the case of optic phonons, a u , since the atoms are moving in opposite directions. u On the other hand, for acoustic phonons, a ----- , since, for acoustic phonons, the atoms x are moving in nominally the same direction. So we have: DA - acoustic deformation potential E o = D 0 u Acoustic Since H p'p
2

- abs + emiss

Do - optic deformation potential

= ( D A qA q ) ( p' p hG hq )

Where the parameter Aq is derived from the quantum mechanics of phonons. Recall the phonon operator:

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University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics _ h -------------- 1 2 e [ a e iq r + a e iq r ] q 2Mq q q

q

Prof. J. Bokor

R =

For phonon absorption:

where Nq = phonon occupation for mode q. For phonon emission we get:

2 Aq

_ h = -------------- N q + 1 a q N q 2M q

_ ( N q + 1 )h = ----------------------2Mq

kT -----At room temperature, Nq is typically >> 1, so N q N q + 1 _ - . We can therefore add the h emission and absorption processess. If we neglect G 0 processes, which are generally weaker, we obtain the acoustic phonon scattering rate:
2 2 D A kT ----qS ( p', p ) = ----- ------------- 2 ( p' p hq ) ( E' E h ) _+ + h M 2

After integration over all allowed p' , and use of = qv s (see text for full details), we obtain: V cell D A kT S ( p ) = 1 = -- ------------------------ D ( E ) -_ h Mv 2
s 2

density of electron states = M where = -------------- is the mass density. Again a power law in E: unit V

for acoustic phonon scattering.

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University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics Optic deformation potential scattering

Prof. J. Bokor

In this case, the perturbation of the band energy goes as E o = D o u . Since the process is so inherently inelastic, we cant combine absorption and emission. The matrix element is similar to the acoustic phonon case. For phonon absorption:

For phonon emission: H pp'

2

hD o _ = -------------- ( N q + 1 ) ( p' p + h q o ) 2M o

The scattering rate is a sum of emission and absorption scattering: D o ( 2m ) _ _ _ 12 12 S ( p ) = ----------------------------- N q ( E + h o ) + ( Nq + 1 ) ( E h o ) uo ( E h o ) _3 2h o Heaviside or unit-step function
2 32

Phonon Scattering Rates S

Ab n ssio Emi s+

ABS

E Optic

Acoustic

_ h o

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University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics Polar optic phonon scattering

Prof. J. Bokor

This is the process that usually dominates in compound semiconductors. In this case, since we are considering optic phonons, the induced dipole is directly proportional to the phonon amplitude:

where e* is the effective charge on the dipole. A simple analysis leads to an expression for the perturbation energy:

Here, Vc is the unit cell volume. The resulting scattering rate for the unscreened case is (see text):
1 E 1 2 1 E 12 e o 1 S ( p ) = -------------------------------- ---------------------- N q sinh --------- + ( N q + 1 ) sinh --------- 1 _ h o h o 2h 2E m ( o ) 2

The screened result for this case is a complex expression (see Ferry if interested). Intervalley scattering In Si, zone edge phonons (optical or high energy acoustic) can move carriers from one equivalent valley to another. Optical deformation potential scattering rate applies, modified by Zf, the number of equivalent final valleys, and using Dif, which is defined as the intervalley deformation potential. In GaAs L E L = 0.29eV

only very high energy carriers in valley can scatter to L valley. This only occurs in high fields, or certain laser excitation expts.

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University of California, Berkeley EE230 - Solid State Electronics Summary - Scattering in intrinsic Si, GaAs (Lundstrom 2.11)
ervalu i v i n t 00K eq i at 3 ley in S

Prof. J. Bokor

10 1 -- (see) 10

15

ADP i in S

Polar optic phonon in GaAs at 300k - L scatt in GaAs m

14

10 10

13

12

0.2

0.4

0.6

E(eV

- ADP scattering dominates for E < h op for both Si, GaAs - Si has equivalent intervalley scattering for low energies involving optic phonons. - In GaAs, no intervalley scattering for E < 0.29eV . Low field behavior in GaAs dominated by POP scattering. This is weaker and ~ const with energy.

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