MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION OF ELECTRON-TRANSPORT IN WURTZITE ALUMINUM NITRIDE

We present the steady-state, velocity-field characteristics of wurtzit e aluminum nitride, determined using an ensemble Monte Carlo approach. A three valley model for the conduction band is employed and ionized impurity, polar optical phonon, piezoelectric, deformation potential a nd intervalley scattering mechanisms are considered. We find that alum inum nitride exhibits peak and saturation drift velocities of 1.7 x 10 (7) cm s(-1) and 1.4 x 10(7) cm s(-1), respectively, at a temperature of 300 K and a doping concentration of 1.0 x 10(17) cm(-3). The sensit ivity of these steady-state results to variations in temperature and d oping concentration is examined and is found to be much less than that of gallium arsenide. We also explore the sensitivity of our results t o variations in the piezoelectric constant and demonstrate that piezoe lectric scattering plays a significant role in determining the form of the wurtzite aluminum nitride velocity-field characteristic. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.