WIGNER–POISSON AND NONLOCAL DRIFT-DIFFUSION MODEL EQUATIONS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR SUPERLATTICES

Abstract

A Wigner–Poisson kinetic equation describing charge transport in doped semiconductor superlattices is proposed. Electrons are assumed to occupy the lowest miniband, exchange of lateral momentum is ignored and the electron–electron interaction is treated in the Hartree approximation. There are elastic collisions with impurities and inelastic collisions with phonons, imperfections, etc. The latter are described by a modified BGK (Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook) collision model that allows for energy dissipation while yielding charge continuity. In the hyperbolic limit, nonlocal drift-diffusion equations are derived systematically from the kinetic Wigner–Poisson–BGK system by means of the Chapman–Enskog method. The nonlocality of the original quantum kinetic model equations implies that the derived drift-diffusion equations contain spatial averages over one or more superlattice periods. Numerical solutions of the latter equations show self-sustained oscillations of the current through a voltage biased superlattice, in agreement with known experiments.