COMPARISON OF STEADY-STATE AND TRANSIENT ELECTRON TRANSPORT IN InAs, InP AND GaAs

Abstract

An ensemble Monte Carlo simulation is used to compare high field electron transport in bulk InAs , InP and GaAs . In particular, velocity overshoot and electron transit times are examined. For all materials, we find 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, about 400 kVm-1 for the case of GaAs , 300 kVm-1 for InAs and 700 kVm-1 for InP . We find that InAs exhibits the highest peak overshoot velocity and that this velocity overshoot lasts over the longest distances when compared with GaAs and InP . Finally, we estimate the minimum transit time across a 1 μm GaAs sample to be a bout 3 ps. Similar calculations for InAs and InP yield 2.2 and 5 ps, respectively. The steady-state and transient velocity overshoot characteristics are in fair agreement with other recent calculations.