Effects of Strain on the
Carrier Mobility in Silicon
Nanowires
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Abstract
We investigate electron and hole mobilities in strained
silicon
nanowires (Si NWs) within an atomistic tight-binding framework. We
show that the carrier mobilities in Si NWs are very responsive to
strain and can be enhanced or reduced by a factor >2 (up to 5×)
for moderate strains in the ±2% range. The effects of strain
on the transport properties are, however, very dependent on the orientation
of the nanowires. Stretched ⟨100⟩ Si NWs are found to
be the best compromise for the transport of both electrons and holes
in ≈10 nm diameter Si NWs. Our results demonstrate that strain
engineering can be used as a very efficient booster for NW technologies
and that due care must be given to process-induced strains in NW devices
to achieve reproducible performances