Thermodynamic complexity measure for semiconductor heterostructures

Abstract

Semiconductor chips in contemporary microelectronics and optoelectronics are complicated objects, There may be various approaches to express their complexity. The one presented in this paper, suitable in the first place to multiple-layer heterostructures, is based on the thermodynamic notion of the entropy of mixing. This complexity measure, termed the configuration entropy /spl Delta/S/sub conf/, is a functional depending on the concentration profile x(Z) and the layer growth law d(t). Of particular interest can be the configuration entropy production rate P/sub conf//spl equiv/dS/sub conf//dt. Theoretical concepts are illustrated on the concrete case of the growth of a double heterostructure in the AlGaAs material system.