A Sensitivity Analysis for an Electron Transport System with Uncertainty in the Underlying the Material Parameters—A General Approach Applied to the Specific Case of Wurtzite Gallium Nitride

The electron transport that occurs within semiconductors is often studied through the use of Monte Carlo simulations. The results of such a simulation are critically dependent upon the underlying material parameters associated with the specific material being examined. For a compound semiconductor, the critical material parameters are the effective masses, the non-parabolicity constants, the deformation potential, the phonon energies, and the elastic constants. It is often the case that many of these material parameters are not very well known or have a range of different reported values. In this study, we employ an uncertainty quantification technique that allows us to determine the effect of the uncertainty of the underlying material parameter values on the computed transport properties through the use of a Monte Carlo simulation approach. In order to make matters concrete, this technique is applied to the specific case of wurtzite gallium nitride, a material whose material properties remain less well known than that of the more traditional compound semiconductors, such as gallium arsenide. The broader consequences of this approach, for the constellation of compound semiconductor materials, is considered.