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arXiv · 1911.09750

Electron and hole mobility of rutile GeO$_2$ from first principles: an ultrawide-band-gap semiconductor for power electronics

Abstract

Rutile germanium dioxide (r-GeO$_2$) is a recently predicted ultrawide-band-gap semiconductor with potential applications in high-power electronic devices, for which the carrier mobility is an important material parameter that controls the device efficiency. We apply first-principles calculations based on density functional and density functional perturbation theory to investigate carrier-phonon coupling in r-GeO$_2$ and predict its phonon-limited electron and hole mobilities as a function of temperature and crystallographic orientation. The calculated carrier mobilities at 300 K are $μ_{\text{elec},\perp \vec{c}}$=244 cm$^2$ V$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$, $μ_{\text{elec},||\vec{c}}$=377 cm$^2$ V$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$, $μ_{\text{hole},\perp \vec{c}}$=27 cm$^2$ V$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$, and $μ_{\text{hole},||\vec{c}}$=29 cm$^2$ V$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$. At room temperature, carrier scattering is dominated by the low-frequency polar-optical phonon modes. The predicted Baliga figure of merit of n-type r-GeO$_2$ surpasses several incumbent semiconductors such as Si, SiC, GaN, and $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$, demonstrating its superior performance in high-power electronic devices.

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Kyle Bushick, Kelsey A. Mengle, Sieun Chae, Emmanouil Kioupakis. 2020-11-07. Electron and hole mobility of rutile GeO$_2$ from first principles: an ultrawide-band-gap semiconductor for power electronics. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0033284

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