Understanding the Average Electron–Hole Pair-Creation Energy in Silicon and Germanium Based on Full-Band Monte Carlo Simulations

The thermalization process of sub-10-eV charge carriers is examined with treating carrier transport with full-band Monte Carlo simulations. The average energy loss (3.69 eV in Si and 2.62 eV in Ge) required to create a thermalized electron-hole pair, obtained from the simulations, is very close to the experimentally measured radiation-ionization energies of Si and Ge irradiated with high-energy pa...