Theory of nonlinear transport of hot carriers across semiconductor junctions

Abstract

In this paper we investigate analytically the transport mechanisms of both electrons and holes across semiconductor p-n junctions in view of the hydrodynamic model. We present a novel analytical solution of the set of hydrodynamic equations across semiconductor p-n junctions. In addition, we show whether the hydrodynamic model actually adds new information to our knowledge about carrier transport across semiconductor junctions, or simply results in some smoothing to the classical results we usually obtain using the drift-diffusion model. We demonstrate why the profile of the minority carrier distribution as well as the minority carrier current density are completely different from the classical drift-diffusion theory around the edges of space-charge regions. The analytical results are in close agreement with the exact numerical solution obtained by simulation.