Acoustic and optical-phonon-limited mobilities in p-type silicon within the deformation-potential theory

Abstract

The deformation-potential theory of Bir and Pikus, for the hole-optical phonon scattering, has been extended for the treatment of nonparabolic bands and combined with the theory of Tiersten, for the hole-acoustic phonon scattering, to calculate phonon-limited mobilities in p-type silicon. The mobilities were calculated without the relaxation-time approximation from solutions of the full Boltzmann equation, with accurate hole wave functions and valence-band dispersions. Only the hole-optical phonon deformation-potential parameter was adjusted to yield agreement with transport data at room temperature; other experimental input was fixed. This represents the first such calculation for silicon. The conductivity and Hall mobilities, and the Hall factor, are in very good agreement with most of the available experimental data. The agreement between experiment and theory is significantly better than that attained by earlier calculations.