| Intervalley scattering of electrons has been experimentally shown to affect the current-voltage characteristics of resonant tunneling diodes. Electron scattering to satellite valleys and subsequent propagation through alternate conduction paths leads to leakage current and hence degrades the region of negative differential resistance. In this thesis, intervalley scattering is examined to study the effects of anisotropic density of states in the first Brillouin zone and then it is incorporated into a quantum kinetic transport model. In quantum kinetic theory the time evolution of a system is expressed in terms of density operators such as the density matrix and the Wigner function. By using the Wigner function, processes of significance to transport in the resonant tunneling diode, such as implementation of time irreversible boundary conditions at the ohmic contacts, ballistic motion of electrons, polar optical phonon scattering, and intervalley deformation potential scattering are incorporated into the quantum kinetic theory. The current-voltage characteristics are then computed as a function of temperature and it is shown that the current-voltage characteristics are sensitive to the value of the optical deformation potential. |
