98 research outputs found
Effects of Interface Disorder on Valley Splitting in SiGe/Si/SiGe Quantum Wells
A sharp potential barrier at the Si/SiGe interface introduces valley
splitting (VS), which lifts the 2-fold valley degeneracy in strained
SiGe/Si/SiGe quantum wells (QWs). This work examines in detail the effects of
Si/SiGe interface disorder on the VS in an atomistic tight binding approach
based on statistical sampling. VS is analyzed as a function of electric field,
QW thickness, and simulation domain size. Strong electric fields push the
electron wavefunctions into the SiGe buffer and introduce significant VS
fluctuations from device to device. A Gedankenexperiment with ordered alloys
sheds light on the importance of different bonding configurations on VS. We
conclude that a single SiGe band offset and effective mass cannot comprehend
the complex Si/SiGe interface interactions that dominate VS.Comment: 5 figure
Practical application of zne-folding concepts in tight-binding calculations
Modern supercell algorithms, such as those used in treating arrays of quantum dots or alloy calculations, are often founded upon local basis representations. Such local basis representations are numerically efficient, allow considerations of systems consisting of millions of atoms, and naturally map into carrier transport simulation algorithms. Even when treating a bulk material, algorithms formulated on a local basis generally cannot produce an Eskd dispersion resembling that of a simple unit cell, due to zone folding. This paper provides an exact method for perfect supercells to unfold the zone folded Eskd diagrams into a meaningful bulk dispersion relation. In addition, a modification to the algorithm for use with imperfect supercells is presented. With this method, questions such as algorithm verification, dispersions in nanowires, and dispersions in finite supercell heterostructures can be addressed
The discretized Schrodinger equation and simple models for semiconductor quantum wells
The discretized Schr¨odinger equation is one of the most commonly employed methods for solving one-dimensional quantum mechanics problems on the computer, yet many of its characteristics remain poorly understood. The differences with the continuous Schr¨odinger equation are generally viewed as shortcomings of the discrete model and are typically described in purely mathematical terms. This is unfortunate since the discretized equation is more productively viewed from the perspective of solid-state physics, which naturally links the discrete model to realistic semiconductor quantum wells and nanoelectronic devices. While the relationship between the discrete model and a one-dimensional tight-binding model has been known for some time, the fact that the discrete Schr¨odinger equation admits analytic solutions for quantum wells has gone unnoted. Here we present a solution to this new analytically solvable problem. We show that the differences between the discrete and continuous models are due to their fundamentally different bandstructures, and present evidence for our belief that the discrete model is the more physically reasonable one
Full 3D Quantum Transport Simulation of Atomistic Interface Roughness in Silicon Nanowire FETs
The influence of interface roughness scattering (IRS) on the performances of
silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (NWFETs) is numerically investigated
using a full 3D quantum transport simulator based on the atomistic sp3d5s*
tight-binding model. The interface between the silicon and the silicon dioxide
layers is generated in a real-space atomistic representation using an
experimentally derived autocovariance function (ACVF). The oxide layer is
modeled in the virtual crystal approximation (VCA) using fictitious SiO2 atoms.
-oriented nanowires with different diameters and randomly generated
surface configurations are studied. The experimentally observed ON-current and
the threshold voltage is quantitatively captured by the simulation model. The
mobility reduction due to IRS is studied through a qualitative comparison of
the simulation results with the experimental results
Effects of Interface Roughness Scattering on Radio Frequency Performance of Silicon Nanowire Transistors
The effects of an atomistic interface roughness in n-type silicon nanowire
transistors (SiNWT) on the radio frequency performance are analyzed. Interface
roughness scattering (IRS) is statistically investigated through a three
dimensional full-band quantum transport simulation based on the sp3d5s?*
tight-binding model. As the diameter of the SiNWT is scaled down below 3 nm,
IRS causes a significant reduction of the cut-off frequency. The fluctuations
of the conduction band edge due to the rough surface lead to a reflection of
electrons through mode-mismatch. This effect reduces the velocity of electrons
and hence the transconductance considerably causing a cut-off frequency
reduction
Brillouin-zone Unfolding of Perfect Supercells Having Nonequivalent Primitive Cells Illustrated with a Si/Ge Tight-Binding parameterization
Numerical calculations of nanostructure electronic properties are often based on a nonprimitive rectangular unit cell, because the rectangular geometry allows for both highly efficient algorithms and ease of debugging while having no drawback in calculating quantum dot energy levels or the one-dimensional energy bands of nanowires. Since general nanostructure programs can also handle superlattices, it is natural to apply them to these structures as well, but here problems arise due to the fact that the rectangular unit cell is generally not the primitive cell of the superlattice, so that the resulting E(k) relations must be unfolded to obtain the primitive- cell E(k) curves. If all of the primitive cells in the rectangular unit cell are identical, then the unfolding is reasonably straightforward; if not, the problem becomes more difficult. Here, we provide a method for zone unfolding when the primitive cells in a rectangular cell are not all identical. The method is applied to a Si(4)Ge(4) superlattice using a set of optimized Si and Ge tight-binding strain parameters
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