The effects of degeneracy of the carrier ensemble on the energy loss rate and the high field mobility characteristics under the conditions of low lattice temperatures

Abstract

The rate of loss of energy of the non-equilibrium electrons to the acoustic mode lattice vibration in a degenerate semiconductor is obtained under the condition, when the lattice temperature is low enough, so that the traditional approximations like the elastic nature of the electron-phonon collisions and the truncation of the phonon distribution to the equipartition law are not valid any more. Using the results of the energy loss rate, the non-ohmic mobility is then calculated. Evaluating the loss rate and the non-ohmic mobility in degenerate samples of Si and Ge we find that significant changes in both the characteristics have been effected compared to that in the non-degenerate samples, in the regime of lower energy and for relatively lower fields. The effected changes are more significant the lower the lattice temperature is.