Hierarchy of semiconductor equations: relaxation limits with initial layers for large initial data. (Q2276056)

This short monograph is concerned with a rigorous analysis of the relaxation limits for the standard unipolar hydrodynamical energy-transport and drift-diffusion models for semiconductors in one-dimensional devices like diodes. Formally, the energy-transport model is derived from the hydrodynamical one when the relaxation time of the momentum tends to zero. Similarly, as the energy relaxation time tends to zero in the energy-transport model, the drift-diffusion equations are recovered. The authors aim to mathematically justify such a relaxation procedure. They prove that the global-in-time solutions of the hydrodynamical models converge to those of the energy-transport model as the momentum relaxation time approaches zero. Moreover, it is shown that the global-in-time solutions of the energy-transport model converge to those of the drift-diffusion model when the energy relaxation time becomes smaller and smaller. A relevant feature of the theory is that no smallness assumption on the initial data is required; they can be taken arbitrarily large provided they belong to a suitable Sobolev space. Instead it is assumed that the relaxation times are sufficiently small along with the bias voltage and the difference between the density at the boundary. The results have been obtained using weighted energy methods which play also an important role in handling the initial layers arising because the initial data are not necessarily in momentum equilibrium for the energy transport or in energy equilibrium for the drift-diffusion case. The monograph is divided into five chapters. The first one gives a short review of electron devices, in particular diodes, and of the standard macroscopic mathematical models for semiconductors known in the literature. The mathematical formulation of the problems tackled in the book is given in Chapter 2, where the main results are stated. The stationary case is treated in the third chapter, while the global-in-time solutions are studied in Chapter 4 for the energy-transport model and in Chapter 5 for the hydrodynamical model. The detailed proof of the existence of the local in time solutions for both energy-transport and hydrodynamical model is presented in the appendix. The monograph is a good introduction to the study of analytical problems arising from the macroscopic models for charge transport in semiconductors and can be of interested also to researchers working in the field.