Comparison Between Non-Equilibrium Green's Function and Monte Carlo Simulations for Transport in a Silicon Quantum Wire Structure

We present comparisons of simulations conducted with non-equilibrium Green's functions and Monte Carlo approaches. As prototype, we consider an idealized silicon quantum wire structure, consisting of a conduction channel of rectangular cross-section, terminated by two contacts. The Monte Carlo model treats the particles as semi-classical, but distributed over up to seven subbands and with scattering model similar to the one used for the Green's functions model. Results for drift velocity under various field conditions agree very closely using the two techniques, suggesting that particle simulation may continue to be a useful physical investigation tool at the nanoscale with an appropriate introduction of the most important quantum features of the transport.