Hot electron transport in AlN

The energy distribution of electrons that were transported through a thin i ntrinsic AlN film was directly measured as a function of the applied field. The measurements were realized by extracting the electrons into vacuum thr ough a semitransparent Au contact and measuring their energies using an ele ctron spectrometer. At moderate applied fields (100 kV/cm), the energy dist ribution was found to follow a Maxwellian model corresponding to a temperat ure of 2700 K and a drift component below the spectrometer resolution. At h igher fields, intervalley scattering was evidenced by the presence of a sec ond peak at 0.7 eV. This coincides well with the energy position of the LM valleys in AlN. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)0912 2-2].