ELECTRON-ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS IN SILICON STRUCTURES AT LOW APPLIED VOLTAGES AND HIGH ELECTRIC-FIELDS

In this article a quantitative study of the electron energy distributi on in silicon devices at low applied voltages is carried out by means of Monte Carlo simulations including the main mechanisms involved in t he process of carrier heating. We present a clear-cut interpretation o f the build up of the electron distribution at energies higher than wh at is provided by the applied electric field. The influence of differe nt boundary conditions on the simulation results is analyzed in detail . As a consequence, the hypothesis that the high energy tail simply re presents the memory of the initial distribution at the injecting bound ary due to ballistic transport is ruled out, even for highly inhomogen eous field profiles, such as in very short metal oxide semiconductor f ield effect transistors, for which a ballistic transport regime had be en stated. In addition, the effect of short-range electron-electron in teraction is examined and shown to be an effective process for the enh ancement of the high-energy electron population. (C) 1996 American Ins titute of Physics.