Monte Carlo study of hot-carrier transport in bulk wurtzite GaN and modeling of a near-terahertz impact avalanche transit time diode

By Monte Carlo simulations we calculate static and dynamic charge transport properties of bulk wurtzite GaN in the presence of high electric fields. The microscopic model is validated by comparison with available experiments. On this basis a double-drift impact avalanche transit time diode made of wurtzite GaN is investigated and optimized by performing ensemble Monte Carlo simulations of the diode self-consistently coupled with a load circuit. The large-signal ac characteristics show that avalanche diodes based on GaN can operate as microwave generators in a wide frequency range up to 0.7 THz. A maximum efficiency of about 18% is found at 0.45 THz.