Influence of anisotropic light-hole band structure on indirect tunneling in silicon

Abstract

In this letter, we have clarified the physics of indirect interband tunneling in silicon. By considering the detailed anisotropic light-hole band structure, the magnitude of the current densities shows J⟨110⟩≈J⟨111⟩≈10×J⟨100⟩ under the low electric field and J⟨110⟩≈J⟨111⟩≈3×J⟨100⟩ under the high electric field. The quantitative result is consistent with the recent experimental data. The study also indicates that the indirect tunneling current in strain silicon or Si1−xGex can be changed a lot by the highly anisotropic valence band structure.