Abstract

The aim of this article is to give a detailed account of the plane harmonic generalized elasto-thermodiffusive (ETNP) waves in semiconductive materials. The shear (purely transverse) waves get decoupled from the rest of the motion and remain independent of the influence of other fields. These waves propagate without dispersion and attenuation in semiconductors. The coupled system of partial differential equations, governing the rest of the interacting fields, has been solved to obtain a complex secular equation. According to the frequency equation, four coupled longitudinal waves, namely, the quasithermoelastic (QTE), quasielastodiffusive (QEN/QEP), quasithermodiffusive (QTN/QTP), and quasithermal (T-mode), can exist and propagate in an infinite semiconductor. The complex secular equation of plane harmonic waves in semiconductors is solved by using Descartes’ algorithm and the irreducible case of Cardan’s method in order to obtain phase velocities and attenuation coeficients of all possible coupled waves. The thermoelastic (ET), elastodiffusive (EN/EP) and thermodiffusive (TN/TP) waves have also been investigated as special cases. The derived theoretical results have been illustrated and verified numerically for germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) semiconductors. The computed phase velocity and attenuation profiles have been presented graphically.

Keywords

semiconductors, relaxation time, electrons and holes, waves, germanium and silicon

Authors