Electron Mobility Calculation in Gaas and The Effects of Fast Neutron Radiation On Its Crystal Structure

International Journal of Research and Reviews in Applicable Mathematics & Computer Science,
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

Electron Mobility Calculation in GaAs and the Effects
of Fast Neutron Radiation on its Crystal Structure

H. Arabshahi and A. Poorhassan

Department of Physics, Payame Noor University, P. O. Box 19395-3697, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

An iteration method has been developed for the study of electron transport properties in GaAs
taking into account the different scattering effects. It is shown that electron-phonon scattering
affects substantially the electron energy distribution function and transport properties in bulk
GaAs. The following scattering mechanisims, i.e, impurity, polar optical phonon, acoustic
phonon, piezoelectric are included in the calculation. Ionized impurity scattering has been
treated beyound the Born approximation using the phase-shift analysis. The amount of neutron
energy deposition in GaAs crystal of different sizes and at different distances from a neutron
source has also been evaluated by using MCNP code. Then, the rate of atoms displacement in the
crystals has been calculated using NRT Model. The damage to crystal is proportional to the
energy deposition of neutron directly. Results show that number of atoms displacement in the
crystal is related to the neutron radiation damage and increased by enlarging of crystal size.

Keywords: Iteravive technique; electron-phonon scattering; neutron energy;
crystal size; atom displacement.

1. Introduction

The problems of electron transport properties in semiconductors have been extensively
investigated both theoretically and experimentally for many years. Many numerical methods available
in the literature (Monte Carlo method, Iterative method, variational method, Relaxation time
approximation, or Mattiessen's rule) have lead to approximate solutions to the Boltzmann transport
equation [1-4]. The Monte Carlo method has been widely used to study hot-electron problems [5-9].
The principle of this method is to simulate on a computer the motion of one electron in momentum
space through a large number of scattering processes taking note of the time that the electron spends in
each element of momentum space during its flight, this time being proportional to the distribution
function in the elements. The procedure used for the following the motion of an electron requires
random numbers to represent the time which the electron drifts before being scattered, and to represent
the final state after the scattering event. The probability distribution for these random numbers can be
completely specified in terms of the electric field strength and the transition probabilities due to the
various scattering processes.
Electrons in bulk material suffer intravalley scattering by polar optical, non-polar optical, acoustic
phonons and piezoelectric scattering, intervalley phonons, and ionized impurity scattering.
Acoustic and piezoelectric scattering are assumed elastic and the absorption and emission rates are
combined under the equipartition approximation, which is valid for lattice temperatures above 77 K.
Elastic ionised impurity scattering is described using the screened Coulomb potential of the Brooks-
Herring model. We have also calculated neutron energy deposition on GaAs crystal using MCNP code.
We then evaluated the damage, the atom displacements rate of GaAs crystal using NRT model. It is
well known that the main damages of the crystal are atom displacements and neutron activation that
varied for different neutron sources.
December Issue Page 95 of 103 ISSN 2249 8931
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

This paper is organized as follows. Details of the iterative model and the electron mobility calculations
and the electron scattering mechanism which have been used are discussed in section 2, the atom
displacement model under high neutron energy deposition are explained in section 3 and the results of
calculations are interpreted in section 4.

2. Simulation method

Electronic transport in GaAs material under high applied electric field is studied using the ensemble
Monte Carlo simulation. The band structure of the material under study is approximated with an
analytical formulation using non-parabolic spherical valleys. Though usage of an analytical band
structure is questionable at high applied electric field strengths wherein impact ionization can occure,
we adopt its usage here for the following reasons. First, due to the large number of compositions
examined, it is too computationally expensive to utilize full band models with their concomitant
numerically derived scattering mechanisms. Second, we have found that the analytical model well
reflects the low field dynamics critical for assessing the carrier mobility. Since we restrict our work
here only to high field phenomena, an analytical band structure is satisfactory.
The familiar three-valley I-X-L approximation of the first conduction band has been used for the
wurtzite crystal structure of GaAs. Band edge energies, effective masses and non-parabolicities are
derived from empirical pseudopotential calculations.
We assume that all donors are ionized and that the free-electron concentration is equal to the dopant
concentration. For each simulation, the motion of ten thousand electron particles are examined, the
temperature being set to 300 K, and the doping concentration being set to 10
22
m
-3
. In the case of the
ellipsoidal, non-parabolic conduction valley model, the usual Herring-Vogt transformation matrices are
used to map carrier momenta into spherical valleys when particles are drifted or scattered. Electrons in
bulk material suffer intravalley scattering by polar optical,
non-polar optical and acoustic phonons scattering, intervalley phonons, ionized impurity and electron-
plasmon scattering. Acoustic scattering is assumed elastic and the absorption and emission rates are
combined under the equipartition approximation, which is valid for lattice temperatures above 77 K.
Elastic ionized impurity scattering is described using the screened Coulomb potential of the Brooks-
Herring model. Band edge energies, effective masses and non-parabolicities are derived from empirical
pseudopotential calculations. In the following section different scattering mechanisms will be
discussed.
Deformation potential scattering
The acoustic modes modulate the inter atomic spacing. Consequently, the position of the conduction
and valence band edges and the energy band gap will vary with position because of the sensitivity of
the band structure to the lattice spacing. The energy change of a band edge due to this mechanism is
defined by a deformation potential and the resultant scattering of carriers is called deformation
potential scattering. The energy range involved in the case of scattering by acoustic phonons is from
zero to vk 2 , where v is the velocity of sound, since momentum conservation restricts the change of
phonon wavevector to between zero and 2k, where k is the electron wavevector. Typically, the average
value of k is of the order of 10
7
cm
-1
and the velocity of sound in the medium is of the order of 10
5

cms
-1
. Hence, vk 2 ~ 1 meV, which is small compared to the thermal energy at room temperature.
Therefore, the deformation potential scattering by acoustic modes can be considered as an elastic
process except at very low temperature. The deformation potential scattering rate with either phonon
emission or absorption for an electron of energy E in a non-parabolic band is given by Fermi's golden
rule as [6-7]

| |
2 2
4 2
2 / 1 * 2 * 2
) ( 3 / 1 ) 1 (
) 2 1 (
) 1 ( ) ( 2
) ( E E
E
E E
v
T K m m D
k R
B l t ac
de
o o
o
o
t
+ +
+
+
=
(1)
where D
ac
is the acoustic deformation potential, is the
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

material density and o is the non-parabolicity coefficient. The formula clearly shows that the acoustic
scattering increases with temperature.
Piezoelectric scattering
The second type of electron scattering by acoustic modes occurs when the displacements of the
atoms create an electric field through the piezoelectric effect. This can occur in the compound
semiconductors such as the III-V and II-VI materials including GaAs, which in fact has a relatively
large piezoelectric constant. The piezoelectric scattering rate for an electron of energy E in an isotropic,
parabolic band has been discussed by Ridley [7] who included the modification of the Coulomb
potential due to free carrier screening. The screened Coulomb potential is written as

r
r q e
r V
s
) exp(
4
) (
0
0
2
=
c tc
(2)
where c
s
is the relative dielectric constant of the material and q
0
is the inverse screening length, which
under non-degenerate conditions is given by

T K
ne
q
B s
c c
0
2
2
0
= (3)
where n is the electron density. The expression for the scattering rate of an electron in a non-parabolic
band structure retaining only the important terms can be written as [6-7]

(
(
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
+
+
+
+ =

2
* 2
0
2 2
0
2
*
2 2 / 1
0
2
2 2 *
2 1
2
) ( 8 / 1
1 ) ( 8
1 ln(
) 2 1 )( (
2 4
) (
E
E
E m q q
E m
E E
T K K e m
k R
s
B av
pz
o
o
o
c c t

(4)
where K
av
is the dimensionless so called average electromechanical coupling constant.
Polar optical phonon scattering
The dipolar electric field arising from the opposite displacement of the negatively and positively
charged atoms provides a coupling between the electrons and the lattice which results in electron
scattering. This type of scattering is called polar optical phonon scattering and at room temperature is
generally the most important scattering mechanism for electrons in III-V semiconductors, and this is
also the case in GaAs despite the fact that the optical phonon energy is particularly high at ~ 93 meV
which suppresses the phonon population and also electrons must reach that energy before phonon
emission is possible. The scattering rate due to this process for an electron of energy E in an isotropic,
non-parabolic band is [6-7]

{ } 1 , ) ' , (
) (
' 2 1
)
1 1
(
8
2
) (
0
2 / 1
0
2 *
+
+
=
op op
s
op
po
N N E E F
E
E
e m
k R
o
c c tc
e
(5)
where

| |
| |
) ' 2 1 )( 2 1 )( ' 1 )( 1 ( 4
) ' ( ) ' 1 )( 1 ( 4 2
) ' ( ) ' 1 )( 1 ( 2
) ' ( ) (
) ' ( ) (
ln ) ' , (
2 / 1 ' 2 / 1
2
2 / 1 2 / 1
2 / 1 2 / 1
1
0
E E E E C
E E B
E E A
B
E E
E E
A C E E F
o o o o
o o o o
o o o

+ + + + =
+ + + + =
+ + + + =
)
`
+
=

where N
op
is the phonon occupation number and the upper and lower cases refer to absorption and
emission, respectively. For small electric fields, the phonon population will be very close to
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

equilibrium so that the average number of phonons is given by the Bose-Einstein distribution

1 ) exp(
1
=
T K
N
B
op
op
e
(6)
where
op
e is the polar optical phonon energy.
Non-polar optical phonon scattering
Non-polar optical phonon scattering is similar to deformation potential scattering, in that the
deformation of the lattice produces a perturbing potential but in this case the deformation is carried by
optical vibrations. The non-polar optical phonon scattering rate in non-parabolic bands is given by [6-
7]

| | 1 , ) ( ) 2 1 (
2
) (
) (
2 / 1
3
2 / 1 * 2 * 2
+ + =
op op
op
l t od
npo
N N E E
m m D
k R o
e t
(7)

where D
od
is the optical deformation potential and
op
E E e = '
is the final state energy phonon
absorption (upper case) and emission (lower case).
Intravalley impurity scattering
This scattering process arises as a result of the presence of impurities in a semiconductor. The
substitution of an impurity atom on a lattice site will perturb the periodic crystal potential and result in
scattering of an electron. Since the mass of the impurity greatly exceeds that of an electron and the
impurity is bonded to neighboring atoms, this scattering is very close to being elastic. Ionized impurity
scattering is dominant at low temperatures because, as the thermal velocity of the electrons decreases,
the effect of long-range Coulombic interactions on their motion is increased. The electron scattering by
ionized impurity centres has been discussed by Brooks-Herring [9] who included the modification of
the Coulomb potential due to free carrier screening. The scattering rate for an isotropic, non-parabolic
band structure is given by [6-7]

0
6 / 1 * 2 *
2 / 1 2 / 1 * 2 *
0
2
4
/ ) )( ( 2 4 1
2 1
) ( ) (
8
) (
q m m E
E
E m m
q k
e n
k R
l t
l t
s
i
im

o
t
+
+
= (8)

where n
i
is the impurity concentration, q
0
is the screening length and k
s
is the dielectric constant of the
material.

3. Theory of atom displacement

A primary recoil atom is produced when an energetic incident particle such as fast neutron undergoes a
collision with a lattice atom. If the energy transferred to the primary knock-on atom (PKA)is large
enough, E >> Ed, (where Ed=30eV; the average energy for one displacement), the PKA can continue
the knock-on atom processes, producing secondary recoil atom displacements, which in turn can
displace additional atoms. Such an event will result in many collision and displacement events
occurring in near proximity of each other. The multiple displacement sequence of collision events is
commonly referred to as a collision or displacement cascade. Transferred energy to a PKA with atomic
mass number A, when occurred and that a neutron of energy E recoiled, is given by

( ) 2 ) 1 /( 4 cos 2 2 / 1
0 1
2
0
2
1
A AE v v v v T + = + + = u (9)
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

where v
1
is the velocity of scattering atom after collision, and v
0
is the centre of mass velocity.
The original model for displacement damage, developed initially for simple metals, is due to
Kinchin and Pease [8], and the standard formulation of it by Norgett et al. [7], often referred to
as the NRT model. MCNP is a general-purpose Monte Carlo neutron, photon, and electron
transport code. It has continuous-energy physics and is time-dependent. The geometry is any
arbitrary configuration of three dimensional surfaces. It is used for radiation shielding,
criticality safety, nuclear design, aerospace, medical, nonproliferation, radiation dose and other
applications by several thousand users worldwide. This code is used to simulate one neutron at a
time and records its history. The neutron energy deposition in the crystal has been calculated by
tally F6:n for different neutron sources: mono-energy, Am-Be and
252
Cf sources.

4. Calculation results

We have performed a series of low-field electron mobility calculations in GaAs material. Low-field
mobility has been derived using iteration method.
Figure 1 shows the calculated electron drift mobility in bulk GaAs material as a function of
temperature with free electron concentration of 10
21
to 10
23
m
-3
and with the electric field applied along
one of the cubic axes. It can be seen from the figure that the electron drift mobility at room temperature
that we find for GaAs is 3000 cm
2
/V-s at 10
23
m
-3
donor concentration. The results plotted in figure 1
indicate that the electron drift mobility of GaAs is lower at donor concentration of 10
23
m
-3
at all
temperatures. This is largely due to the higher electron scattering rate. Also it can be seen that below
100 K, ionized impurity scattering is the dominant forms of lattice scattering.
100 200 300 400 500 600
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6

E
l
e
c
t
r
o
n

M
o
b
i
l
i
t
y

(
c
m
2
/

V
.
S
)
Temperature ( K)
N
d
=10
21
m
-3
N
d
=10
22
m
-3
N
d
=10
23
m
-3

Fig 1. Electron drift mobility vs temperature of pure intrinsic GaAs with free electron concentration up
to10
23
m
-3
.
Figure 2 shows the calculated variation of the electron drift mobility as a function of free electron
concentration for all crystal structures at temperatures up to 600 K. The mobility does not vary
monotonically between free electron concentrations of 10
20
m
-3
and 10
24
m
-3
due to the dependence of
electron scattering on free electron concentration, but shows a maximum near 10
20
m
-3
for all
temperatures.
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

0.0
2.0x10
23
4.0x10
23
6.0x10
23
8.0x10
23
1.0x10
24
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000

E
l
e
c
t
r
o
n

M
o
b
i
l
i
t
y

(
c
m
2
/

v
.
s
)
Electron Density ( m
-3
)
T=300 K
T=450 K
T=600 K

Fig 2. Calculated low-field electron drift mobility of GaAs as a
function of different free electron concentration at temperature up to 600 K.

We have also calculated neutron energy deposition on GaAs crystal using MCNP code. The GaAs
crystal is placed at different distances from point neutron sources with constant mono-energy and
continuous energy spectrum such as Am-Be and
252
Cf source. Then, the amount of deposition energy
per gram of crystal was calculated by F6:n tally of MCNP code. The amount of deposition energy per
gram for different GaAs crystal for Am-Be source as function of distance, per one neutron of source is
illustrated in figure 3a. By using this data and the NRT model, the atom displacements rate for GaAs
crystals have been evaluated. These results are shown in figure 3b.
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

0 1 2 3 4 5
0.000
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
(a)

D
e
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

e
n
e
r
g
y

p
e
r

n
e
u
t
r
o
n

(
M
e
V
/
g
)
Distance from source ( cm )
Crystal size=0.3*0.3 cm
2
2
2
Energy = 10 MeV

0 1 2 3 4 5
0.0
1.0x10
-4
2.0x10
-4
3.0x10
-4
4.0x10
-4
5.0x10
-4
(b)

D
e
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

e
n
e
r
g
y

p
e
r

n
e
u
t
r
o
n

(
M
e
V
/
g
)
Distance from source (cm )
2
2
2
Energy = 1 MeV

Figure 3: (a) Energy deposition per gram in different GaAs crystal due to an Am-Be source; (b) the
atom displacements rate.

The amount of deposition energy per gram in different GaAs crystal size due to different mono energy
rate in figure 3b has been shown. A comparison of atom displacements rate due function of distance is
illustrated in figure 4a and 4b shows the atom displacements rate placed on a point 2 MeV neutron
source as a function of distance. The corresponding result for a
252
Cf source is shown figure 4a, and the
atom displacements atom displacements rate in figure 4b. Energy deposition and corresponding atom
displacements rate are decreases mostly by 1/r
2
as we expected.
A comparison of atom displacements rate due to different sources located in 5 cm far from the crystal
have been illustrated in figure 4. It can be seen that the neutron average energy of the source increases
as well as the corresponding damage growing up.
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

0 1 2 3 4 5
0.0
0.6
1.2
1.8
2.4
3.0
(a)

A
t
o
m
i
c

D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

R
a
t
e

(
P
e
r

N
e
u
t
r
o
n
)
Distance from source (cm)
1.5*1.5
0.8*0.8
0.3*0.3
Energy = 1 MeV

0 1 2 3 4 5
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
(b)

A
t
o
m
i
c

D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

R
a
t
e

(
P
e
r

N
e
u
t
r
o
n
)
Distance from source (cm)
1.5*1.5
0.8*0.8
0.3*0.3
Energy = 10 Mev

Figure 4: Comparison of atom displacements rate in GaAs crystals that placed on
5 cm of different sources at different energy.

5. Conclusion

Using an iteration method, it was shown that the electron-phonon scattering in the I valley
substantially affects the electron energy distribution function and transport properties in GaAs. It is
shown that the threshold electric field and maximum drift velocity increase by %30 and %17,
respectively, and Ohmic mobility drops by %15. This is caused by combined effects of effective
Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

cooling of electron gas by electron-phonon scattering and predominantly forward peaked momentum
relaxation for all electron momenta. Our calculation results show also that the amount of deposition
energy per gram of GaAs crystals and total number of atom displacements are a function of crystal
sizes. Collision and displacement events occur more in larger crystal, because a neutron leaves crystal,
after more collision. As well as, atom displacements increase when the energy of the source accrues.
The amount of deposition energy per gram of crystal decreases if the distance between source and
crystal get larger. It is because the reaction surface reduces than reaction volume.

6. References

[1] Arabshahi H, Comparison of SiC and ZnO field effect transistors for high power applications,
Modern Phys. Lett. B, 23 (2009) 2533-2539.
[2] Arabshahi H, Potential performance of SiC and GaN based metal semiconductor field effect
transistors, Brazilian J. Phys. 39 (2009) 35-39.
[3] K. Bhattacharyya, S. M. Goodnick and J. F. Wager, J. Appl. Phys. 73 (1993) 3390-3398.
[4] J. Fogarty, W. Kong and R. Solanki, Solid State Electronics 38 (1995) 653-659.
[5] Farahmand M, Garetto C, Bellotti E, Brennan K F, Goano M, Ghillino E, Ghione G,
and Ruden P, Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport in the III-nitride wurtzite phase
materials system: binaries and ternaries, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 48
(2001) 535-539.
[6] Jacoboni C and Lugli P, The Monte Carlo method for semiconductor and device
simulation, Springer- Verlag, (1989).
[7] Moglestue C, Monte Carlo simulation of semiconductor devices, Chapman & Hall, (1993).
[8] O'Leary S, Foutz B, Shur M S and Eastman L F, Steady-state and transient electron
transport within the III-V nitride semiconductors, GaN, AlN, and InN: A review, J. Mater.
Sci.: Mater. Electron. 17 (2006) 87-92.

Authors Profile

Hadi Arabshahi received the B. S degree in physics from the Ferdowsi University
of Mashhad,, Iran, in 1992 and the Ph. D. degree in computational physics from
Durham University, United Kingdom, in 2002. He has published over 145 peer-
reviewed journal papers and contributed to more than 80 conference papers and
presentations. His research activities include semiconductor device simulations, high
field transport properties in bulk and devices, transient relaxation in materials and
devices, simulation of optoelectronic devices, electronics properties of low-
dimensional and curved nanostructures and quantum information.


Electron Mobility Calculation in Gaas and The Effects of Fast Neutron Radiation On Its Crystal Structure

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Electron Mobility Calculation in Gaas and The Effects of Fast Neutron Radiation On Its Crystal Structure

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Electron Mobility Calculation in Gaas and The Effects of Fast Neutron Radiation On Its Crystal Structure

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

International Journal of Research and Reviews in Applicable Mathematics & Computer Science,

Vol. 1, No.6, 2011

You might also like