Temperature Dependence of the Transport Properties of Gallium Arsenide Determined by a Monte Carlo Method

Abstract

Transport properties of gallium arsenide in an electric field have been calculated in the temperature range 77°–500°K using a Monte Carlo technique. In intrinsic material it is found that the threshold field for the onset of negative differential mobility changes only slightly over this temperature range increasing from 3.1 kV/cm at 77°K to 3.7 kV/cm at 500°K, while the negative differential mobility reduces from 4200 to 1000 cm²/V sec over the same temperature rise. The influence of impurity scattering on the velocity field characteristic has been considered at 77°K for impurity concentrations of 10¹⁵ and 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ and at 300°K for concentrations for 10¹³, 10¹⁵, and 10¹⁷cm⁻³. The threshold field for the onset of negative differential mobility is found to change only slightly while the peak‐to‐valley ratio decreases significantly with increasing impurity concentration. The temperature dependence of the low‐field mobility has been calculated for impurity concentrations of 10¹⁵, 10¹⁶, and 10¹⁷ cm⁻³.