The role of visualization in the simulation of quantum electronic transport in semiconductors

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · Computer; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/2.35201· OSTI ID:5574052

Kluksdahl, N C; Kriman, A M; Ferry, D K ^[1]

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1. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (USA)

In simulating a semiconductor device, examining the raw numerical data rarely fosters an understanding of physical processes within the device. Visualization tools provide a useful method for interpreting this voluminous data and allow a better understanding of the semiconductor. Pictorial representation of data can reveal results not readily discerned from the data alone. Furthermore, animating a sequence of data frames permits visualization of time-evolving systems. These advantages hold especially true when studying ultrasmall devices such as the resonant tunneling diode. The RTD is a gallium-arsenide semiconductor structure in which two thin layers (a few nanometers thick) of aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) form quantum tunneling barriers around a thin layer of gallium arsenide. The quantum tunneling probability in this structure possesses a sharp peak, corresponding to resonant tunneling. Experimental devices incorporating this structure show negative differential conductivity in their current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, as predicted by theory. Efforts to model the RTD met with only limited success until employment of the Wigner function formalism.

• OSTI ID: 5574052
• Journal Information: Computer; (USA), Vol. 22:8; ISSN 0018-9162
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SIMULATION
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
PERFORMANCE
PHASE STUDIES
QUANTUM ELECTRONICS
TUNNEL DIODES
WIGNER DISTRIBUTION
WIGNER THEORY
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
PNICTIDES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
360603* - Materials- Properties
360602 - Other Materials- Structure & Phase Studies
990230 - Mathematics & Mathematical Models- (1987-1989)