Electron Lattice Interactions In Semiconductors

This book presents theoretical treatments on various electronic and atomic processes in non-metallic materials from a unified point of view. It starts with the basic properties of semiconductors, treating the system as a macroscopic association of electrons and ions. In their ground state, fruitful results are derived, such as the band theory for electrons in a periodic lattice and a useful concept of “hole.” The electron–lattice interaction is then introduced as a dynamical response of condensed matter when it is electronically excited. With the aid of proper configuration coordinate diagrams, various phenomena are precisely examined, including carrier scattering, polaron formation, lattice relaxation, Stokes shift and phonon side band in optical spectrum, intrinsic and extrinsic self-trapping, and structural changes. The book provides readers a deep understanding of the physics underlying these phenomena and excellent insight to develop their further research. Graduate students who have finished the basic study on solid-state physics and quantum mechanics and research scientists and engineers in materials science and engineering will benefit immensely from it.

Materials and Reliability Handbook for Semiconductor Optical and Electron Devices provides comprehensive coverage of reliability procedures and approaches for electron and photonic devices. These include lasers and high speed electronics used in cell phones, satellites, data transmission systems and displays. Lifetime predictions for compound semiconductor devices are notoriously inaccurate due to the absence of standard protocols. Manufacturers have relied on extrapolation back to room temperature of accelerated testing at elevated temperature. This technique fails for scaled, high current density devices. Device failure is driven by electric field or current mechanisms or low activation energy processes that are masked by other mechanisms at high temperature. The Handbook addresses reliability engineering for III-V devices, including materials and electrical characterization, reliability testing, and electronic characterization. These are used to develop new simulation technologies for device operation and reliability, which allow accurate prediction of reliability as well as the design specifically for improved reliability. The Handbook emphasizes physical mechanisms rather than an electrical definition of reliability. Accelerated aging is useful only if the failure mechanism is known. The Handbook also focuses on voltage and current acceleration stress mechanisms.

This review volume is based primarily on the balance equation approach developed since 1984. It provides a simple and analytical description about hot electron transport, particularly, in semiconductors with higher carrier density where the carrier-carrier collision is much stronger than the single particle scattering. The steady state and time-dependent hot electron transport, thermal noise, hot phonon effect, the memory effect, and other related subjects of charge carriers under strong electric fields are reviewed. The application of Zubarev's nonequilibrium statistical operator to hot electron transport and its equivalence to the balance equation method are also presented. For semiconductors with very low carrier density, the problem can be regarded as a single carrier transport which will be treated non-perturbatively by the nonequilibrium Green's function technique and the path integral theory. The last part of this book consists of a chapter on the dynamic conductivity and the shot noise suppression of a double-carrier resonant tunneling system. Contents:Balance-Equation Approach to Hot-Carrier Transport in Semiconductors (X L Lei & N J M Horing): Recent Developments in Magnetotransport Theory (N J M Horing et al.)Effect of Nonequilibrium Phonon on the Electron Relaxation and Transport (M Lax & W Cai)Nonlinear Transport of Electrons under a Strong High Frequency Electric Field in Semiconductors (W Cai & M Lax)Nonequilibrium Statistical Operator in Hot-Electron Transport Theory (D Y Xing & M Liu)Path Integral Study of Polaron Transport under High Electric Field (Z B Su): Impurity Resistivity under Thermalized Condition (C S Ting & L Y Chen)Nonequilibrium Green's Function Approach to Dynamic Properties of Resonant-Tunneling through Double Barrier Structures (L Y Chen & C S Ting) Readership: Physicists and electrical engineers. keywords:

Problems after each chapter

Amorphous materials differ significantly from their crystalline counterparts in several ways that create unique issues in their use. This book explores these issues and their implications, and provides a full treatment of both experimental and theoretical studies in the field. Advances in Amorphous Semiconductors covers a wide range of studies on hydrogenated amorphous silicon, amorphous chalcogenides, and some oxide glasses. It reviews structural properties, properties associated with the charge carrier-phonon interaction, defects, electronic transport, photoconductivity, and some applications of amorphous semiconductors. The book explains a number of recent advances in semiconductor research, including some of the editors' own findings. It addresses some of the problems associated with the validity of the effective mass approximation, whether K is a good quantum number, and the concepts of phonons and excitons. It also discusses recent progress made in understanding light-induced degradations in amorphous semiconductors, which is seen as the most limiting problem in device applications. The book presents a comprehensive review of both experimental and theoretical studies on amorphous semiconductors, which will be useful to students, researchers, and instructors in the field of amorphous solids.

Throughout their college career, most engineering students have done problems and studies that are basically situated in the classical world. Some may have taken quantum mechanics as their chosen field of study. This book moves beyond the basics to highlight the full quantum mechanical nature of the transport of carriers through nanoelectronic structures. The book is unique in that addresses quantum transport only in the materials that are of interest to microelectronics—semiconductors, with their variable densities and effective masses. The author develops Green’s functions starting from equilibrium Green’s functions and going through modern time-dependent approaches to non-equilibrium Green’s functions, introduces relativistic bands for graphene and topological insulators and discusses the quantum transport changes that these bands induce, and discusses applications such as weak localization and phase breaking processes, resonant tunneling diodes, single-electron tunneling, and entanglement. Furthermore, he also explains modern ensemble Monte Carlo approaches to simulation of various approaches to quantum transport and the hydrodynamic approaches to quantum transport. All in all, the book describes all approaches to quantum transport in semiconductors, thus becoming an essential textbook for advanced graduate students in electrical engineering or physics.

Defects in Optoelectronic Materials bridges the gap between device process engineers and defect physicists by describing current problems in device processing and current understanding of these defects based on defect physics. The volume covers defects and their behaviors in epitaxial growth, in various processes such as plasma processing, deposition and implantation, and in device degradation. This book also provides graduate students cutting-edge information on devices and materials interaction.

This second edition discusses the importance of semiconductors along with their newest applications. The book introduces the ever-changing field of semiconductors, before covering chapters on electronic structure, lattice dynamics, transport structures, optical properties and electron-electron interaction. This edition has been extensively updated with the addition of new chapters on statistics and optics, two expanded chapters on transport, and examples of the most recent applications of semiconductors. The book offers the deepest insight yet into the field of semiconductors, providing essential reading for graduate students and industry specialists.