Modeling of enhancement factor of hole mobility for strained silicon under low stress intensity

In order to quantitatively characterize the enhancement of hole mobility of strained silicon under different stress intensity conditions, changes of hole effective mass should be studied. In the paper, strained silicon under in-plane biaxially tensile strain based on (0 0 1) substrate and longitudinal uniaxially compressive strain along h1 1 0i are investigated thoroughly. By solving the Hamiltonian of valence band using K P model, we can obtain the relationship of density of state effective mass (mDOS), conductivity effective mass (mC) and splitting energy in valence band energy with stress intensity for both biaxially tensile strain and uniaxially compressive strain. For the stress intensity less than 1 GPa, the paper presents the models of enhancement factor of hole mobility under the biaxially tensile strain and uniaxially compressive strain. The results show that biaxially tensile strain of silicon cannot enhance hole mobility under low stress intensity, while uniaxially compressive stress of silicon can enhance hole mobility greatly. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.