Comparative Monte Carlo analysis of InP- and GaN-based Gunn diodes

Abstract

In this work, we report on Monte Carlo simulations to study the capability to generate Gunn oscillations of diodes based on InP and GaN with around 1 lm active region length. We compare the power spectral density of current sequences in diodes with and without notch for different lengths and two doping profiles. It is found that InP structures provide 400 GHz current oscillations for the fundamental harmonic in structures without notch and around 140 GHz in notched diodes. On the other hand, GaN diodes can operate up to 300 GHz for the fundamental harmonic, and when the notch is effective, a larger number of harmonics, reaching the Terahertz range, with higher spectral purity than in InP diodes are generated. Therefore, GaN-based diodes offer a high power alternative for sub-millimeter wave Gunn oscillations. V

Self-consistent electro-thermal simulations of AlGaN/GaN diodes by means of Monte Carlo method

“…In addition to the foregoing, the MC method could also be applicable to electronic as well as light-emitting devices and lasers, where non-equilibrium charge transport and selfheating effects may also be important [16]. In this paper we use an in-house ensemble MC tool self-consistently coupled with a two-dimensional (2D) Poisson solver [17] that allows for an accurate electric current modeling of different kinds of devices [18][19][20]. Semiconductors are modeled by three nonparabolic spherical valleys for the conduction band, whose main parameters can be found in [20,21].…”

Monte Carlo study of the operation of GaN planar nanodiodes as sub-THz emitters in resonant circuits

“…For the calculations we make use of a semiclassical ensemble MC simulator self-consistently coupled with a two-dimensional (2D) Poisson solver, whose validity has been previously checked [4,8,18] and has been very useful for the understanding of the physical behavior of SSDs and the optimization of their performances (mainly as detectors). Electron transport in GaN is modeled by three non-parabolic spherical valleys (Γ 1 , U, and Γ 3 ) with intervalley, acoustic, and optical phonons, ionized impurities, and piezoelectric scatterings [19]. To model the geometry of SSDs based on the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction, the so-called top view simulations [4,8,18,[20][21][22][23] have been employed.…”

“…MC simulations of Gunn oscillations in GaN SSDs including thermal effects show that the heating leads to a decrease of the oscillation frequency due to a lower drift velocity of the Gunn domain. However, even if the temperature increase can be as high as 200 K, the heating is not enough to kill the Gunn oscillations [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Time-domain Monte Carlo simulation of GaN planar Gunn nanodiodes in resonant circuits

“…For the calculations, we make use of a semiclassical ensemble MC simulator self-consistently coupled with a 2D Poisson solver whose validity for the analysis of the physical behavior of SSDs has already been demonstrated [3], [4]. Electron transport in GaN is modeled by three non-parabolic spherical valleys (Γ 1 , U and Γ 3 ) with intervalley, acoustic and optical phonons, ionized impurities and piezoelectric scatterings [5]. The schematic top-view topologies of (a) the square (SQ-SSD) and (b) the V-shaped (VS-SSD) GaN diodes under analysis have been plotted in Fig.…”