Confined and interface optical phonon emission in GaN/InGaN double barrier quantum well heterostructures

Abstract

In GaN-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), the fast emission of longitudinal optical (LO) phonons can result in the formation of hot spots near the gate region where high electric fields produce hot electrons. In this work, we investigate the probability of phonon emission as a function of electron energy for confined and interface (IF) phonon modes for wurtzite GaN/InGaN/GaN heterostructures. Hot electrons radiate optical phonons which decay, anharmonically, into acoustic phonons that are essentially heat carriers. Herein, phonon engineering concepts are introduced which facilitate thermal management through the production of polar optical phonons. Some of the electrons near a semiconductor gate which manifests a strong electric field, are accelerated and the resulting hot electrons will produce confined and interface modes when the electrons are incident on a suitably-placed quantum well. This paper focuses on the production of confined and interface phonons. It is shown that interface modes may be preferentially produced which lead to elongated, lower-temperature hot spots.