Temperature Dependence of Ionization Rates in Ge

Abstract

The ionization rates of eletron and hole in germanium have been measured from 200°K to 300°K and were fit to the modified Baraff theory, in which the optical phononmean free path is temperature dependent and can be fit to the formula:λ=λ0 tanhEp/2KT, where Ep is the average optical phonon energy. The asymptotic optical phonon mean free paths wherin deduced from experiments are λ=73±4Å and λoh=84±4Å for electron and hole respectively which are in good agreement with that of Miller's data obtained at room temperature. A simplified approach to calculate the ionization rates from the photomultiplication data has also been deduced for the one sided abrupt junction.