A microscopic computer model of electrical conduction and joule heating in nanodevices

ANDREW P. HORSFIELD; D. R. BOWLER; A. J. FISHER; T. N. TODOROV; CRISTIAN GABRIEL SANCHEZ

Beijing

Conferencia; International Conference on Solid-Sate and Integrated Circuits Technology; 2004

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

A time-dependent method that allows the modelling of theflow of electrons in a nanoscale device in the presenceof open boundaries is presented. This method is applied to the simplest possible device (one atom attached to twoleads) to investigate steady-state conduction, and the variation of the electric current in the presence of a rapidlyvarying external potential. The model is then extended to include the heating. effect of the current, and we find thatboth ionic heating and cooling can take place, depending on the bias. Despite its qualitative success, the simplestmodel is quan!itatively in error. The reason for this is described. and the first order corrections to this model are presented.