The implementation of physical boundary conditions in the Monte Carlo simulation of electron devices

This paper investigates the problem of specifying and implementing physical boundary conditions for the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of electron dynamics in semiconductor devices. The goal of this work is to establish an accurate and efficient ohmic boundary condition scheme for use in characterizing realistic device structures. In this work, three distinct physical models for specifying the boundary electrons at the ideal ohmic contacts of an N⁺-N-N⁺ GaAs Ballistic diode structure are investigated. This study demonstrates that a displaced Maxwellian scheme, which allows for an electron ensemble with momentum space displacement and random spread, presents definite computational advantages when one is interested in resolving asymmetries in the electron distribution function throughout the semiconductor device structure