First-principles mode-by-mode analysis for electron-phonon scattering channels and mean free path spectra in GaAs

Te-Huan Liu, Jiawei Zhou, Bolin Liao, David J. Singh, and Gang Chen
Phys. Rev. B 95, 075206 – Published 16 February 2017

Abstract

We present a first-principles framework to investigate the electron scattering channels and transport properties for polar materials by combining the exact solution of the linearized electron-phonon (e-ph) Boltzmann transport equation in its integral-differential form associated with the e-ph coupling matrices obtained from the polar Wannier interpolation scheme. No ad hoc parameter is required throughout this calculation, and GaAs, a well-studied polar material, is used as an example to demonstrate this method. In this work, the long-range and short-range contributions as well as the intravalley and intervalley transitions in the e-ph interactions (EPIs) have been quantitatively addressed. Promoted by such mode-by-mode analysis, we find that in GaAs, the piezoelectric scattering is comparable to deformation-potential scattering for electron scatterings by acoustic phonons in EPI even at room temperature, and it makes a significant contribution to mobility. Furthermore, we achieved good agreement with experimental data for the mobility, and we identified that electrons with mean free paths between 130 and 210 nm provide the dominant contribution to the electron transport at 300 K. Such information provides a deeper understanding of the electron transport in GaAs, and the presented framework can be readily applied to other polar materials.

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  • Received 11 May 2016
  • Revised 20 January 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.075206

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Te-Huan Liu1, Jiawei Zhou1, Bolin Liao1, David J. Singh2, and Gang Chen1,*

  • 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA

  • *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: gchen2@mit.edu

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Vol. 95, Iss. 7 — 15 February 2017

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