Quasi-ballistic transport of non-equilibrium electrons in diamond thin films

A molecular dynamics simulation of conduction-band transport in diamond has been carried out which combines classical propagation of electrons with choice of scattering events determined by a Monte Carlo algorithm using quantum mechanical rates. The high field regime is dominated by hot optical phonon scattering for n⩽10¹⁹ cm ^-3 and by electron-plasmons (e-pl) emission for higher electron concentrations. Electron-electron (e-e) and electron-hole (e-h) binary processes do not significantly influence the transport characteristics but extend the high-energy tail and asymmetry of the electron distribution, making it more “Maxwellian”. The results demonstrate the possibility of achieving quasi-ballistic transport in thin diamond films with a significant portion of the field energy imparted to the electrons even at high fields (F≈10²V/μm) and electron concentrations up to n≈10 ¹⁹ cm^-3