Monte Carlo Simulations of Electron Transport Characteristics of Ternary Carbide Al₄SiC₄

Abstract

Electron transport characteristics of a novel wide band gap ternary carbide, Al4SiC4, to be used for efficient power and optoelectronic applications, are predicted using ensemble Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The MC simulations use a mixture of material parameters obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experiment, with a preference for the experimental data if they are known. The DFT calculations predict a band gap of 2.48 eV, while the experimental measurements give a band gap between 2.78 and 2.8 eV. We have found that the electron effective mass in the two lowest valleys (M and K) is highly anisotropic; in the K valley, m t * = 0.5678 m e and m l * = 0.6952 m e, and for the M valley, m t * = 0.9360 m e and m l * = 1.0569 m e. We simulate electron drift velocity and electron mobility as a function of applied electric field as well as electron mobility as a function of doping concentration in Al4SiC4. We predict a peak electron drift velocity of 1.35 × 107 cm s–1 at an electric field of 1400 kV cm–1 and a maximum electron mobility of 82.9 cm2 V–1 s–1. We have seen diffusion constants of 2.14 cm2 s–1 at a low electric field and 0.25 cm2 s–1 at a high electric field. Finally, we show that Al4SiC4 has a critical field of 1831 kV cm–1.

SiC/Al4SiC4-Based Heterostructure Transistors

“… a Obtained from ref . b Ref . c Ref . d The electron mobility is extracted from an ensemble Monte Carlo simulations at an applied electric field of 0.01 kV/cm. …”

“…When the device is in the offstate, the Fermi level is located between the conduction band and the valence band. When in the on-state, the Fermi level shifts up, so that the level is located within the conduction band of the device and the electron concentration increases by a factor of 6 creating a 2DEG at the interface between 4H-SiC 13 at an applied electric field of 0.01 kV/cm. Breakdown of the devices is determined from simulated I D − V D characteristics seen in Figures 9 and 10 when the transistors are in the off-state.…”

“…On top of these applications, Al In this work, we have employed a commercial TCAD Silvaco software by using twodimensional (2D) Atlas simulations to foresee device characteristics of a SiC/Al 4 SiC 4 heterostructure transistors for the first time. The device simulations use a combination of material properties of Al 4 SiC 4 obtained from physically based simulations and calculations 4,13 along with other published material properties. 14 Where the material properties are unknown, we use the material properties of 4H-SiC as the closest material system.…”

“…Al 4 SiC 4 material parameters considered in the simulations of heterostructure transistors. The electron mobility is extracted from an ensemble Monte Carlo simulations13 at an applied electric field of 0.01 kV/cm.…”

Combustion synthesis of single‐phase Al4SiC4 powder with assistance of induction heating

“…Aluminum silicon carbide (Al 4 SiC 4 ) has been attracting increasing attention not only in the field of refractory and hightemperature materials due to its low density, high melting temperature, high compressive stress, good thermal conductivity, ductility, and excellent oxidation resistance, [1][2][3][4] but also in the fields of photocatalysis, power, and optoelectronics as a new wide-gap semiconductor material. [5][6][7] Al 4 SiC 4 can be synthesized by various methods; elemental powders of Al, Si, and C 1,3,8,9 or oxide powders such as Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 , and C [10][11][12] are often used as starting materials. The carbothermal reduction method uses cheap and widely available Al(OH) 3 , Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 powders as starting materials, moreover natural minerals can also be used.…”