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Title: A WENO-solver combined with adaptive momentum discretization for the Wigner transport equation and its application to resonant tunneling diodes

Abstract

We present a novel numerical scheme for the deterministic solution of the Wigner transport equation, especially suited to deal with situations in which strong quantum effects are present. The unique feature of the algorithm is the expansion of the Wigner function in local basis functions, similar to finite element or finite volume methods. This procedure yields a discretization of the pseudo-differential operator that conserves the particle density on arbitrarily chosen grids. The high flexibility in refining the grid spacing together with the weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for the advection term allows for an accurate and well-resolved simulation of the phase space dynamics. A resonant tunneling diode is considered as test case and a detailed convergence study is given by comparing the results to a non-equilibrium Green's functions calculation. The impact of the considered domain size and of the grid spacing is analyzed. The obtained convergence of the results towards a quasi-exact agreement of the steady state Wigner and Green's functions computations demonstrates the accuracy of the scheme, as well as the high flexibility to adjust to different physical situations.

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22465602
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Computational Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 284; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0021-9991
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 97 MATHEMATICAL METHODS AND COMPUTING; ACCURACY; ADVECTION; ALGORITHMS; CONVERGENCE; FINITE ELEMENT METHOD; GREEN FUNCTION; PHASE SPACE; STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS; TRANSPORT THEORY; TUNNEL DIODES; WIGNER THEORY

Citation Formats

Dorda, Antonius, and Schürrer, Ferdinand. A WENO-solver combined with adaptive momentum discretization for the Wigner transport equation and its application to resonant tunneling diodes. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1016/J.JCP.2014.12.026.
Dorda, Antonius, & Schürrer, Ferdinand. A WENO-solver combined with adaptive momentum discretization for the Wigner transport equation and its application to resonant tunneling diodes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JCP.2014.12.026
Dorda, Antonius, and Schürrer, Ferdinand. 2015. "A WENO-solver combined with adaptive momentum discretization for the Wigner transport equation and its application to resonant tunneling diodes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JCP.2014.12.026.
@article{osti_22465602,
title = {A WENO-solver combined with adaptive momentum discretization for the Wigner transport equation and its application to resonant tunneling diodes},
author = {Dorda, Antonius and Schürrer, Ferdinand},
abstractNote = {We present a novel numerical scheme for the deterministic solution of the Wigner transport equation, especially suited to deal with situations in which strong quantum effects are present. The unique feature of the algorithm is the expansion of the Wigner function in local basis functions, similar to finite element or finite volume methods. This procedure yields a discretization of the pseudo-differential operator that conserves the particle density on arbitrarily chosen grids. The high flexibility in refining the grid spacing together with the weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for the advection term allows for an accurate and well-resolved simulation of the phase space dynamics. A resonant tunneling diode is considered as test case and a detailed convergence study is given by comparing the results to a non-equilibrium Green's functions calculation. The impact of the considered domain size and of the grid spacing is analyzed. The obtained convergence of the results towards a quasi-exact agreement of the steady state Wigner and Green's functions computations demonstrates the accuracy of the scheme, as well as the high flexibility to adjust to different physical situations.},
doi = {10.1016/J.JCP.2014.12.026},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22465602}, journal = {Journal of Computational Physics},
issn = {0021-9991},
number = ,
volume = 284,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}