corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. B » Volume 69 » Issue 16
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. B 69, 165301 (2004) [6 pages]

Ballistic hot-electron transport in nanoscale semiconductor heterostructures: Exact self-energy of a three-dimensional periodic tight-binding Hamiltonian

Download: PDF (279 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Ian Appelbaum*
Gordon McKay Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Tairan Wang and J. D. Joannopoulos
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

V. Narayanamurti
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Received 1 December 2003; published 2 April 2004

As the length scale for semiconductor heterostructures approaches the regime of the lattice constant, our current theory for calculating ballistic hot-electron transport becomes inapplicable. In this case, a method such as the Green’s function formalism should be used to calculate ballistic electron transmission functions from the exact, periodic lattice potential. We present a method for directly calculating the exact surface Green’s function for three-dimensional periodic leads which is necessary for such a scheme. Except in cases of high crystal symmetry, the method is limited by the difficulty to solve a nonsymmetric matrix Riccati equation.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.69.165301
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.69.165301
PACS:
73.23.-b, 72.10.Bg

*Electronic address: appeli@deas.harvard.edu

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >