Phase-coherent quantum transport in silicon nanowires based on Wigner transport equation: Comparison with the nonequilibrium-Green-function formalism

Various theoretical formulations are proposed for investigating the carrier transport in nanoscale electronic devices. In this paper, a discrete formulation of the Wigner transport equation (WTE) for the self-consistent simulation of phase-coherent quantum transport in silicon nanowire metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) devices is presented. The device is simulated using an effective-mass Hamiltonian within the mode-space approximation. The numerical scheme proposed in this work solves self-consistently three dimensional Poisson's equation, two dimensional Schrodinger's equation in each cross-sectional plane of the nanowire, and the steady-state one dimensional WTE for each conduction mode to handle the quantum transport along the channel. Details on numerical implementation of the Wigner function method are given, and the results are compared with those of the nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method in the ballistic limit. The calculations of current-voltage electrical characteristics of surround-gated silicon nanowires are performed using both NEGF and WTE formulations. The good agreement observed between these approaches means that a direct solution of the WTE is an accurate simulation method for modeling the ballistic quantum transport in silicon nanowire MOSFETs. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. (doi: 10.1063/1.3226856).