Quantum Transport

With decreasing feature size the physical description changes from classical physics to quantum physics. Nanoelectronics is the emerging field of building electronic devices that use quantum effects and harness the small-scale quantum properties of nature.

For the NANOTCAD project the task was to implement a finite difference solver for the Wigner equation. The solver was used for comparison and testing of a Wigner Monte Carlo code during prototyping.

As an alternative we implemented the quantum transmitting boundary method (QTBM) and experimented with a variety of quantum mechanical formulations. Models for inclusion of scattering within the QTBM are developed.

With regard to coherent transport both the QTBM and the Wigner function method describe the same physical model. Comparing results from the QTBM and the Wigner function method we find that there is a significant difference in the results and discuss the discrepancy.