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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Computational Nanotechnology
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnano.2024.1494814
This article is part of the Research Topic Nanomaterials in Extreme Environments: Latest Advancements and Applications View all articles

Low-Temperature Electron Transport in [110] and [100] Silicon Nanowires: A DFT-Monte Carlo study

Provisionally accepted
Daryoush Shiri Daryoush Shiri 1*Reza Nekovei Reza Nekovei 2Amit Verma Amit Verma 2
  • 1 Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 2 Texas A&M University Kingsville, Kingsville, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The effects of very low temperature on the electron transport in a [110] and [100] axially aligned unstrained silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are investigated. A combination of semi-empirical 10-orbital tight-binding method, density functional theory (DFT), and Ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) methods are used. Both acoustic and optical phonons are included in the electron-phonon scattering rate calculations covering both intra-subband and inter-subband events. A comparison with room temperature (300 K) characteristics shows that for both nanowires, the average electron steady-state drift velocity increases at least 2 times at relatively moderate electric fields and lower temperatures. Furthermore, the average drift velocity in [110] nanowires is 50 percent more than that of [100] nanowires, explained by the difference in their conduction subband effective mass. Transient average electron velocity suggests that there is a pronounced streaming electron motion at low temperature which is attributed to the reduced electron-phonon scattering rates.

    Keywords: Silicon Nanowire, Cryogenic, Electron-phonon scattering, DFT, Ensemble Monte Carlo, CMOS, spin qubit

    Received: 16 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shiri, Nekovei and Verma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Daryoush Shiri, Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 412 96, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.