Wigner-function formalism applied to semiconductor quantum devices: Failure of the conventional boundary-condition scheme
arXiv:1302.2750 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.88.035401
Abstract
The Wigner-function formalism is a well known approach to model charge transport in semiconductor nanodevices. Primary goal of the present article is to point out and explain intrinsic limitations of the conventional quantum-device modeling based on such Wigner-function paradigm, providing a definite answer to open questions related to the application of the conventional spatial boundary-condition scheme to the Wigner transport equation. Our analysis shows that (i) in the absence of energy dissipation (coherent limit) the solution of the Wigner equation equipped with given boundary conditions is not unique, and (ii) when decoherence/dissipation phenomena are taken into account via a relaxation-time approximation the solution, although unique, is not necessarily a physical Wigner function.
18 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. B
Cited by in corpus (13)
- Interplay between energy dissipation and reservoir-induced thermalization in nonequilibrium quantum nanodevices
- Peculiarities of momentum distribution functions of strongly correlated charged fermions
- Scattering nonlocality in quantum charge transport: Application to semiconductor nanostructures
- Wigner-function formalism applied to semiconductor quantum devices: Need for nonlocal scattering models
- Unphysical features in the application of the Boltzmann collision operator in the time dependent modelling of quantum transport
- Electronic Transport and Thermopower in 2D and 3D Heterostructures--A Theory Perspective
- Lattice Wigner equation
- Dynamic transport in a quantum wire driven by spin-orbit interaction
- Quantum diffusion due to scattering non-locality in nanoscale semiconductors
- A Deterministic Solution of the Wigner Transport Equation with Infinite Correlation Length
- Boundaries and profiles in the Wigner formalism
- Solving the Wigner Equation for Chemically Relevant Scenarios: Dynamics in 2D
- An Analytical Solution for the Wigner-Boltzmann Transport Equation in the Relaxation Time Approximation