Hot electrons in wurtzite indium nitride: a new numerical approach

Abstract

For a long time, the band gap width of around 2 eV has been assumed for wurtzite InN. However, recent experimental and theoretical investigations (see [1]) have provided convincing evidence that the band gap of InN is actually close to 0.7 eV. Thus, the alloy InxGa1-xN formed of InN and wideband GaN is promising for the use in optoelectronic applications. The problem of electron transport in the bulk InN was studied in papers [2-6] using the Monte-Carlo approach. However, no comparison with experimental data was presented in these papers. In our paper a new numerical method for solution of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) in the isotropic case is introduced and applied to the hot-electron transport in the nonparabolic one-valley model of n -type InN. Applicability of this model is also discussed. Ionized impurity, polar optical phonon (PO) and acoustical phonon (AP) scattering mechanisms are taken into account in the simulations. According to the experiment of [8], we use in our numerical simulation the lattice temperature T = 77 K and the free electron concentration N = 9·1018 cm-3 so that the electron gas degenerates, the ionized impurity concentration is equal to N. Numerical results agree well with the experimental data of [8].