Hot́ hole anisotropic effect in silicon and germanium

Abstract

Anisotropic effect of the hole drift velocity in silicon and germanium has been investigated with the time of flight technique by applying the electric field parallel to the <100 and <111 crystallographic axis. The measurements were performed for electric fields ranging from 10 to 3 × 104V/cm and temperatures from 40 to 200°K. The results indicate that the anisotropic effect vd<100/vd<111 increases with decreasing temperature and increasing electric field, and reaches a saturation value at high electric fields (⩽ 104V/cm). The maximum anisotropic effect for Ge is 1.25 at 40°K and for Si is 1.2 at 45°K. A qualitative analysis of the experimental data indicates that the anisotropic effect is due to the warped heavy-valence-band shape.