Energy distributions and scattering mechanisms of carriers in diamond

Energy distributions and scattering mechanisms of carriers in CVD diamond thin films are discussed on the basis of recent experimental and theoretical studies on carrier mobility. The energy distribution of photo-excited holes has been analyzed with an ensemble Monte Carlo technique. Above 80 K, the photo-excited holes reach quasi-equilibrium with the lattice in less than 100 picoseconds, which suggests that the high mobility values of photo-excited holes so far reported cannot be attributed to the difference between the energy distribution of photo-excited holes and that of holes at the thermodynamic equilibrium.Experimental data of electron Hall mobility in the recent literature have been analyzed by an iterative technique. The fitting between the experimental and theoretical values yields a deformation potential constant of El = 8.0 eV. Pernot et al. have analyzed the same data and obtained rather different values, El = 17.7 eV. The discrepancy comes mostly from the difference in the method of calculating the inter-valley phonon scattering.