Full-band study of current across silicon nanowire transistors

The authors report an atomistic study of the ballistic current through silicon nanowire metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors. A self-consistent quantum ballistic transport model is used to calculate the current in gate-all-around nanowire transistors, taking into account the full-band structure of the quantum wire with a sp(3) tight-binding approach. The authors demonstrate the occurence of an optimal wire cross section for which the on-state/off-state current ratio is maximum, a result which cannot be obtained in a standard bulk effective mass description. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.