Jie-Cheng Chen Qualifying Exam

Abstract: The mobility of charge carriers in materials is one of the crucial properties for the development of power electronics, thermoelectrics, and optoelectronic devices in modern technologies. The Boltzmann transport theory, established long ago, has been widely used to describe electrical transport phenomena in materials. Recent advances in electronic structure calculations have significantly enhanced the quantitative accuracy and predictive power of carrier mobility calculations, particularly through the use of the ab initio linearized Boltzmann equation. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of first-principles Boltzmann transport calculations of charge carrier mobility. I will then present our recent findings on strain engineering in wide-bandgap wurtzite GaN for hole mobility optimization, followed by a comparative study of p-type GaN and AlN. Optimal strain configurations for GaN are identified and the underlying mechanism is discussed. Our simulation results offer valuable insights for the design of next-generation nitride-based high-power electronic devices.