Hot Electrons in Si(100) Inversion Layer at Low Lattice Temperatures

Abstract

The hot electron effect at low lattice temperatures 1≤T≤30 K is studied on the assumption that, in addition to the phonon scattering and some residual scattering independent of T, there is an unknown mechanism which limits the electron mobility such that μ⁻¹(T_e, T)=μ_RES⁻¹+μ_ph⁻¹(T_e, T)+μ_?⁻¹(T_e), where T_e is the electron temperature. μ_?⁻¹(T_e) is determined by requiring that μ⁻¹(T_e, T) reproduces the measured low field mobility. The field dependence of μ(T_e, T) is deduced from the usual energy balance consideration and it is concluded that the dependence can provide a crucial test for the existence of μ_?⁻¹(T_e) for it should be noticeably weaker if there were no such unknown mechanism.