Full-band Monte Carlo simulation of two-dimensional electron gas in (Al_xGa_1−x)₂O₃/Ga₂O₃ heterostructures

$β$-Gallium oxide (Ga$2$O$3$⁠) is an extensively investigated ultrawide-bandgap semiconductor for potential applications in power electronics and radio frequency switching. The room temperature bulk electron mobility (⁠$∼200cm2V−1s−1$⁠) is comparatively low and is limited by the 30 phonon modes originating from its 10-atom primitive cell. The theoretically calculated saturation velocity in bulk is 1–$2×107cms−1$ (comparable to GaN) and is limited by the low field mobility. This work explores the high field electron transport (and hence the velocity saturation) in the 2DEG based on the first principles calculated parameters. A self-consistent calculation on a given heterostructure design gives the confined eigenfunctions and eigenenergies. The intrasubband and the intersubband scattering rates are calculated based on the Fermi’s golden rule considering longitudinal optical (LO) phonon–plasmon screening. The high field characteristics are extracted from the full-band Monte Carlo simulation of heterostructures at 300 K. The overall system is divided into a 2D and a 3D region mimicking the electrons in the 2DEG and the bulk, respectively. The electron transport is treated through an integrated Monte Carlo program which outputs the steady state zone population, transient dynamics, and the velocity–field curves for a few heterostructure designs. The critical field for saturation does not change significantly from bulk values, however, an improved peak velocity is calculated at a higher 2DEG density. The velocity at low 2DEG densities is impacted by the antiscreening of LO phonons which plays an important role in shaping the zone population. A comparison with the experimental measurements is also carried out and possible origins of the discrepancies with experiments is discussed.