On the Cooling of Electrons in a Silicon Inversion Layer

The cooling of two-dimensional electrons in silicon-metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors is studied experimentally. Cooling to the lattice is found to be more effective than expected from the bulk electron-phonon coupling in silicon. Unexpectedly, the extracted heat transfer rate to ph...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2001-08
Main Authors: Prus, O, Reznikov, M, Sivan, U, Pudalov, V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cooling
Cooling effects
Coupling
Deformation
Electron energy
Field effect transistors
Insulators
Metal oxide semiconductors
Metal-insulator transition
MOSFETs
Phonons
Piezoelectricity
Semiconductor devices
Silicon devices
Temperature
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Summary:The cooling of two-dimensional electrons in silicon-metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors is studied experimentally. Cooling to the lattice is found to be more effective than expected from the bulk electron-phonon coupling in silicon. Unexpectedly, the extracted heat transfer rate to phonons at low temperatures depends cubically on electron temperature, suggesting that piezoelectric coupling (absent in bulk silicon) dominates over deformation potential. According to our findings, at 100 mK, electrons farther than 0.1 mm from the contacts are mostly cooled by phonons. Using long devices and low excitation voltage we measure electron resistivity down to 100 mK and find that some of the "metallic" curves, reported earlier, turn insulating below about 300 mK. This finding renders the definition of the claimed 2D metal-insulator transition questionable. Previous low temperature measurements in silicon devices are analyzed and thumb rules for evaluating their electron temperatures are provided.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0108018