Energy relaxation of hot electrons in Si-doped GaN
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China)
Energy relaxation of the hot electrons in Si-doped bulk GaN is studied theoretically, taking into account non-equilibrium polar optical phonons, electron degeneracy, and screening from the mobile electrons. The electron power dissipation and energy relaxation time are calculated as functions of the electron temperature T{sub e}, the hot-phonon effect (HPE) is examined by varying the optical phonon lifetime values, and the results are compared with previous calculations for typical GaN-based heterostructures. Particular attention is paid to the distinct temperature T{sub e} dependences of the power loss and the energy relaxation time τ{sub E} at the low and high electron temperatures. At low electron temperatures (T{sub e}<500 K), the exponential rise of phonon generation number, fast weakened screening and HPE result in a rapid increase of power loss and sharp drop of relaxation time with T{sub e}. At high electron temperatures (T{sub e}>1500 K), the power loss increases slowly with T{sub e} due to the decrease in phonon generation rate, and the temperature-dependence of the energy relaxation time depends on the polar optical phonon lifetime—saturation in energy relaxation occurs when the phonon lifetime increases or varies little with T{sub e}. Our calculated temperature dependences of the energy relaxation time are in good agreement with experimental findings [Liberis et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 202117 (2006); Matulionis et al., Phys. Status Solidi C 2, 2585 (2005)]. With no HPE, the electron energy relaxation is much faster in bulk GaN (τ{sub E}∼ several tens femtoseconds) than in the GaN-based heterostructures. However, stronger hot-phonon re-absorption occurs in bulk GaN due to rapid polar-optical phonon emission compared to phonon decay. Therefore, including HPE yields very close power loss and energy relaxation times in bulk and heterostructures with similar densities of electrons (τ{sub E}∼ several tenths of a picosecond). Transparent expressions for energy relaxation are obtained in the Boltzmann approximation, which are very useful for resolving the temperature dependences of the energy relaxation in the low- and high-T{sub e} regions.
- OSTI ID:
- 22304370
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 20; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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