Hydrodynamic transport parameters for holes in strained silicon

Abstract

Drift velocities, carrier temperatures and energy relaxation times are computed by full-band Monte Carlo simulation along the <110> field direction at 300 K for holes in unstrained and [001]-strained Si grown on a Si/sub 0.7/Ge/sub 0.3/ substrate. The drift velocity as a function of the electric field is significantly enhanced under biaxial tensile strain, but is smaller than in the unstrained case when plotted versus the hole temperature because the holes are more easily heated under strain. The ohmic in-plane drift mobility and the transient velocity overshoot peak for a sudden application of a field of 100 kV/cm are enhanced by a factor of approximately three and two, respectively.