MONTE-CARLO BASED CALCULATIONS OF HOLE TRANSPORT INCLUDING THE HOLE-PLASMON INTERACTION IN DEGENERATE BULK GAAS

A theoretical study of the effect of the hole-plasmon interaction on t he calculated bulk transport properties of degenerate GaAs is presente d. The calculations are performed using an ensemble Monte Carlo simula tion which includes the full details of the heavy, light, and split-of f valence bands derived from a k.p calculation as well as all of the d ominant hole-phonon scattering mechanisms. The hole-plasmon interactio n is treated as a separate scattering mechanism and is computed to fir st order in perturbation theory. The plasmon dispersion relation is de termined numerically by finding the zeroes of the dielectric function assuming hole occupation within both the heavy- and light-hole bands. The hole-plasmon scattering rate is computed self-consistently during the course of the Monte Carlo simulation as a function of the hole con centration and carrier temperature within the heavy-hole and light-hol e bands. It is found that at degenerate hole concentrations, the hole- plasmon scattering rate is much smaller than the dominant phonon scatt ering rates in GaAs at the range of applied electric field strengths c onsidered. It is also found that the hole-plasmon scattering rate has little appreciable effect on the calculated steady-state velocity-fiel d and energy-field characteristics in degenerate GaAs within the prese nt model and under the prescribed conditions.