No label defined (Q4354570)

The equation \[ \begin{aligned} \varepsilon\Delta\psi = & \rho\bigl(x, \psi (x) \bigr)= q\bigl(p-n+D(x) \bigr)\\ = & q \biggl[n_i(\exp \{\varphi_p-\psi/V_{ \text{th}}\})-\bigl(\exp\{\psi- \varphi_n/V_{\text{th}}\}\bigr)+ D(x)\biggr]\quad \text{in } \Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n,\;n\leq 3; \tag{1}\\ \psi = & g \text{ on }\Gamma_0 \subseteq \Gamma,\;\partial\psi/ \partial\nu= h\text{ on }\Gamma_1= \Gamma \setminus \Gamma_0 \end{aligned} \] models distribution of electrostatic potential \(\psi (x)\) in a semiconductor. \(\rho\) is the space charge density, \(q\) is the charge and \(\varepsilon\) the dielectric constant of the material (silicon base), \(n\) the intrinsic concentration \(V_{\text{th}}\) the thermal voltage. Functions \(\varphi_p\), \(\varphi_n\) and \(D(x)\) denote respectively the electron potential, the hole potential and the doping profile. The Maxwell-Boltzman statistics are supposed to hold for free carriers \(p\) (holes) and \(n\) (electrons). \(\Gamma\) is the Lipschitz boundary with outward normal \(\nu\) defined a.e. The authors first consider weak solution \(w(x)\) to (1) with \(\rho =0\), and construct a functional \({\mathcal F}\) such that \(u=\psi-w\) satisfies the Euler-Lagrange equation for \({\mathcal F}\). In the second part of this paper the authors study a simpler boundary value problem for the nonlinear Poisson equation: \(-\Delta u+\theta (u)=0\), with \(u=0\) on \(\Gamma_0\subseteq\Gamma\), \(\partial u/\partial \nu=0\) on \(\Gamma_1= \Gamma\setminus \Gamma_0\). Introduction of vector \(v=N(u)= \text{grad} {\mathcal F}\), allows to interpret \(v\) as a potential operator, and offer a clear energy interpretation of the original semiconductor problem, as a sum of three forms of energy. The authors suggest a Galerkin finite element approach which utilizes this information.