Non-parabolic band transport in semiconductors: Closure of the production terms in the moment equations (Q1976238)

The article is devoted to the determination of the closure relations for the production terms of a system of balance equations in the case of the Kane dispersion relation, using the maximum entropy distribution function obtained before by the author. Because of the production terms coming out as moments of the scattering term of the Boltzmann equation for electrons and due to the paper being restricted by silicon, then the only scattering mechanism taken into account are those of electrons with non-polar optical phonons (both for intervalley and intravalley interactions), acoustic phonons and impurities of the crystal. In the consideration it is neglected the electron-electron scattering as well as the degeneration effects. Moreover, the motion of holes is neglected and the discussion is limited to a single band model (generalization to a many band model is straightforward). At first, a brief account of the needed concepts of electron transport are presented, in particular the basic assumptions on the scattering mechanism are given. Then the moment equations are presented and the form of the maximum entropy principle distribution function is written out. Further, based on a self-consistent treatment, using a distribution function, satisfying the maximum entropy principle, the explicit closure relations for the production terms of the balance equations are obtained and the parabolic band limit of the closures for the production terms is found. Finally, the applications to the case of the bulk silicon are presented. It is assumed, the semiconductor has a sufficiently low doping concentration, so that the scattering with the impurities is neglected. The effects of overshoot and saturation of velocity are investigated. The first phenomenon is the velocity overcoming the asymptotic values, that are the values attained in the stationary regime, and the velocity saturation is observed by increasing the electric field. The numerical results are presented by the dependences of the velocity and energy flux on the electric field.