Theory of transport in silicon quantum wires

Abstract

We calculate transport properties of both electrons and holes in an idealized silicon quantum wire in which scattering is dominated by deformation-potential acoustic-phonon scattering. The quantum-wire electronic states are obtained from an empirical tight-binding calculation while the confined phonon field is treated in a continuum model. Scattering rates within and between quantum-wire subbands are determined from Fermi’s golden rule. The method for calculating scattering rates is quite general; we can include any number of electronic and phonon subbands in our theory. To determine transport properties, we use a Monte Carlo approach.