Transport simulation of bulk AlxGa1-xN and the two-dimensional electron gas at the AlxGa1-xN/GaN interface

In this work, a hybrid Monte Carlo simulation with the inclusion of degenerate statistics has been performed to analyze electron transport in bulk AlxGa1-xN, and the two-dimensional electron gas at the AlxGa1-xN/GaN interface. The results of the steady-state drift velocity, average electron energy, and distribution functions for bulk AlxGa1-xN are presented. A study of the change in transport properties with compositional variations has been made and presented here. Degeneracy has been found to affect electron transport in both the low- and the high-field regions. The inclusion of degeneracy caused a pronounced negative differential mobility. Simulation of the two-dimensional electron gas takes into account three subbands at the AlxGa1-xN/GaN interface. A self-consistent solution of the Schrodinger and Poisson equations at the heterointerface is obtained through a Rayleigh-Ritz method that should result in more accurate electron wave functions, and hence, more accurate scattering rates for the two-dimensional electron gas. The inclusion of degenerate statistics caused an increase in the interband occupancy in addition to an increase in the electron kinetic energy in the subbands. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)03711-6].