Competition between isotropic and strongly anisotropic terms in the impact ionization rate of narrow- and middle-gap cubic semiconductors

Abstract

We report on the strong anisotropy of the inter-band process of impact ionization in direct-gap cubic semiconductors with either weak or strong spin-orbit coupling at low effective temperatures of electron distribution $T$, and the crossover to isotropic behavior with increasing $T$. Such anisotropy is related to specific mechanism of the impact ionization involving coupling of the electron and heavy hole states $\it via$ remote bands, which is vanishing for some high-symmetry propagation directions of an initial electron, namely $\mathrm{[100]}$ and $\mathrm{[111]}$. At room temperature impact ionization rate in narrow-gap semiconductors $\mathrm{InSb}$, $\mathrm{InAs}$, $\mathrm{GaSb}$ and $\mathrm{In}_{0.53}\mathrm{Ga}_{0.47}\mathrm{As}$ is isotropic while in middle-gap $\mathrm{InP}$, $\mathrm{GaAs}$ and $\mathrm{CdTe}$ both terms are comparable. We propose simple and justified analytic generalization of Keldysh formula for the impact ionization rate valid for direct-gap semiconductors with $E_g$ up to $\mathrm{1.5}~\mathrm{eV}$, which is suitable for incorporation into modelling software.