Structural, electronic, and transport properties of silicon nanowires

Abstract

In this paper we review the theory of silicon nanowires. We focus on nanowires with diameters below 10 nm, where quantum effects become important and the properties diverge significantly from those of bulk silicon. These wires can be efficiently treated within electronic structure simulation methods and will be among the most important functional blocks of future nanoelectronic devices. Firstly, we review the structural properties of silicon nanowires, emphasizing the close connection between the growth orientation, the cross-section and the bounding facets. Secondly, we discuss the electronic structure of pristine and doped nanowires, which hold the ultimate key for their applicability in novel electronic devices. Finally, we review transport properties where some of the most important limitations in the performances of nanowire-based devices can lay. Many of the unique properties of these systems are at the same time defying challenges and opportunities for great technological advances.

Reviews of Modern Physics, in press

References in corpus (13)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Calculation of nanowire thermal conductivity using complete phonon dispersion relations
• Transport spectroscopy of a single dopant in a gated silicon nanowire
• Silicon nanowire band gap modification
• Electron- and phonon transport in silicon nanowires: an atomistic approach to thermoelectric properties
• Hawking Radiation from Acoustic Black Holes, Short Distance and Back-Reaction Effects
• Scaling theory put into practice: first-principles modeling of transport in doped silicon nanowires
• First-principles calculation of mechanical properties of Si <001> nanowires and comparison to nanomechanical theory
• Electronic transport in Si nanowires: Role of bulk and surface disorder
• Stability and plasticity of silicon nanowires: the role of wire perimeter
• Dimensional crossover of thermal conductance in nanowires
• Size effects in surface reconstructed $<100>$ and $<110>$ silicon nanowires
• The theoretical DFT study of electronic structure of thin Si/SiO2 quantum nanodots and nanowires

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Cavity-enhanced transport of charge
• Linear Scaling Quantum Transport Methodologies
• Cavity-assisted mesoscopic transport of fermions: Coherent and dissipative dynamics
• Exfoliation energy, quasi-particle bandstructure, and excitonic properties of selenium and tellurium atomic chains
• Reversible Modulation of Spontaneous Emission by Strain in Silicon Nanowires
• Phase-field model of vapor-liquid-solid nanowire growth
• Atomistic Investigation on the Mechanical Properties and Failure Behavior of Zinc Blende Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) Nanowire
• Understanding Mechanical Properties and Failure Mechanism of Germanium-Silicon Alloy at Nanoscale
• Effects of disordered Ru substitution in BaFe${}_2$As${}_2$: Realization of superdiffusion mechanism in real materials
• Elastic transport through dangling-bond silicon wires on H passivated Si(100)
• Lattice Vibrational Modes and their Frequency Shifts in Semiconductor Nanowires
• Gunn Effect in Silicon Nanowires: Charge Transport under High Electric Field
• Atomistic calculation of the thermal conductance of large scale bulk-nanowire junctions
• Interpretation of apparent thermal conductivity in finite systems from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations
• Multiscale Modeling of Nanowire-based Schottky-Barrier Field-Effect Transistors for Sensor Applications
• Atomistic simulations of heat transport in real-scale silicon nanowire devices
• Transport properties and electrical device characteristics with the TiMeS computational platform: application in silicon nanowires
• Hot Polarons with Trapped Excitons and Octahedra-Twist Phonons in CH3NH3PbBr3 Hybrid Perovskite Nanowires
• Spin transport in dangling-bond wires on doped H-passivated Si(100)
• Stabilization and self-passivation of symmetrical grain boundaries by mirror symmetry breaking
• Atomistic calculation of the thermoelectric properties of Si nanowires
• Networks of silicon nanowires: a large-scale atomistic electronic structure analysis
• Filtering electrons by mode coupling in finite semiconductor superlattices
• Twisted ultrathin silicon nanowires: a possible torsion electromechanical nanodevice
• Effect of quasi-bound states on coherent electron transport in twisted nanowires
• Influence of surface stoichiometry and quantum confinement on the electronic structure of small diameter InxGa1-xAs nanowires
• First-principles Prediction of Carrier Mobility in Semiconductor Nanowires Based on the Spatially Dependent Boltzmann Transport Equation
• Interaction of dopants with the I${}_3$-type basal stacking fault in hexagonal-diamond Si
• Ab initio vibrations in nonequilibrium nanowires