Nanoelectronics requires the development of a priori technology evaluation for materials and device design that takes into account quantum physical effects and the explicit chemical nature at the atomic scale. Here, we present a cross-platform quantum transport computation tool. Using first-principles electronic structure, it allows for flexible and efficient calculations of materials transport properties and realistic device simulations to extract current-voltage and transfer characteristics. We apply this computational method to the calculation of the mean free path in silicon nanowires with dopant and surface oxygen impurities. The dependence of transport on basis set is established, with the optimized double zeta polarized basis giving a reasonable compromise between converged results and efficiency. The current-voltage characteristics of ultrascaled (3 nm length) nanowire-based transistors with p-i-p and p-n-p doping profiles are also investigated. It is found that charge self-consistency affects the device characteristics more significantly than the choice of the basis set. These devices yield source-drain tunneling currents in the range of 0.5 nA (p-n-p junction) to 2 nA (p-i-p junction), implying that junctioned transistor designs at these length scales would likely fail to keep carriers out of the channel in the off-state.
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28 May 2013
Research Article|
May 30 2013
Transport properties and electrical device characteristics with the TiMeS computational platform: Application in silicon nanowires
D. Sharma;
1
Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork
, Cork, Ireland
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L. Ansari;
1
Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork
, Cork, Ireland
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B. Feldman;
B. Feldman
2
Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science
, Rehovoth 76100, Israel
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M. Iakovidis;
M. Iakovidis
1
Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork
, Cork, Ireland
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J. C. Greer;
J. C. Greer
1
Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork
, Cork, Ireland
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G. Fagas
1
Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork
, Cork, Ireland
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a)
D. Sharma and L. Ansari contributed equally to this work.
b)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: Georgios.Fagas@tyndall.ie
J. Appl. Phys. 113, 203708 (2013)
Article history
Received:
March 10 2013
Accepted:
May 06 2013
Citation
D. Sharma, L. Ansari, B. Feldman, M. Iakovidis, J. C. Greer, G. Fagas; Transport properties and electrical device characteristics with the TiMeS computational platform: Application in silicon nanowires. J. Appl. Phys. 28 May 2013; 113 (20): 203708. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4807578
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