Fully Atomistic Simulations of Phonon-Limited Mobility of Electrons and Holes in \langle \hbox\rangle-, \langle \hbox\rangle-, and \langle \hbox\rangle -Oriented Si Nanowires

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 59; no. 5; pp. 1480 - 1487
• Main Authors: Niquet, Y-M, Delerue, C., Rideau, D., Videau, B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.05.2012
• Subjects: Effective mass; Electron mobility; Electron-phonon scattering; Logic gates; mobility; nanowire (NW); Phonons; Scattering; Silicon; simulation; tight binding (TB); valence-force field
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2012.2187788

Phonon-limited mobilities of electrons and holes in Si nanowires (NWs) with 〈001〉, 〈110〉, and 〈111〉 orientations are calculated in a fully atomistic framework for diameters up to 10 nm. Electron-phonon scattering rates are computed with an sp 3 d 5 s* tight-binding model for electrons and a valence-force field model for phonons. The Boltzmann equation is then solved exactly for the low-field mobility. Compared to bulk Si, the electron mobilities are strongly reduced, but the hole mobilities can be enhanced in 〈111〉 and 〈110〉 NWs with diameters around 3.5 nm. The mobility, however, rapidly decreases with carrier concentration >; 10 19 cm -3 .