The diffusion-drift description of electrons and holes in a semiconductor is frequently used to obtain a detailed understanding of the physics and engineering of semiconductor devices. We show that, by generalizing the equation of state of the electron gas to include density-gradient dependences, this standard description can be extended to describe much of the quantum-mechanical behavior exhibited by strong inversion layers.

• Received 29 September 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.35.7959