Calculation of interface roughness scattering-limited vertical and horizontal mobilities in InAs/GaSb superlattices as a function of temperature

摘要

Superlattice transport has acquired new relevance owing to the current interest in InAs/GaSb and other superlattices (SL) for third-generation infrared detector focal plane arrays. Interface-roughness scattering (IRS) is known to limit carrier mobilities at low temperatures. Whereas horizontal (in-plane) transport measurements are standard, perpendicular transport measurements (across SL layers)-the ones relevant to the operation of infrared sensors-are non-routine and seldom performed; vertical SL transport is also less well studied theoretically. Therefore, we extend our previous work on low-temperature SL transport by studying horizontal and vertical IRS-limited transport in InAs/GaSb SLs as a function of temperature, SL parameters, and the degree of roughness. Electron mobilities are calculated by solving the Boltzmann equation with temperature-dependent bands and carrier screening, and the results are discussed by analyzing the behavior of the relaxation rates and spectral mobilities, defined as mobilities as a function of carrier energy. New computational tools are devised to handle the implicit integral equation for the horizontal relaxation rates. We find that the behavior of the relaxation rates and spectral mobilities undergoes a change for energies below and above the conduction band bandwidth, which dictates the ultimate behavior of mobilities as a function of temperature. The calculated mobilities are found to display a rich variety of behaviors as a function of temperature, either increasing, decreasing, or remaining relatively constant, depending on the correlation length of interface roughness, A, and the conduction band bandwidth. Since the horizontal mobility is a double-valued function of A, the temperature dependence of mobilities can be used to eliminate this indeterminacy in order to assess the degree of interface roughness.