Ab initio analysis of the electron-phonon interaction in silicon

Abstract

A Harris functional approach is used to investigate the electron-phonon interaction in silicon, within the rigid ion approximation. The necessary lattice dynamics are solved via the valence shell model. The electron-phonon matrix elements for transitions between selected electronic states are calculated, and equivalent deformation potentials are presented and compared with results of other models. The resulting deformation potentials exhibit significant dispersion throughout much of the Brillouin zone, though remain nearly constant for intervalley transitions between states close to the conduction band minima. The overall value of the deformation potentials is somewhat higher than found in previous models and thus in better agreement with experiment.