Paradoxes related to electron-hole scattering in junction structures

Electron-hole scattering (EHS) affects the operation of all bipolar semiconductor devices at a high current density. From a physical point of view, EHS has always been considered an additional "frictional mechanism" for free carriers. Because any friction is a dissipative process, the main conclusion of numerous studies devoted to EHS is that the EHS increases the forward voltage drop across semiconductor devices. As a consequence, the inclusion of EHS inevitably raises the energy loss in bipolar devices. It is shown in this paper that EHS leads to a decrease in the forward voltage drop across bipolar devices in some important cases. This decrease may be substantial from a practical point of view. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.