Time-Dependent Transport in Nanoscale Devices

A method for simulating ballistic time-dependent device transport, which solves the time-dependent Schrödinger equation using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method together with Poisson's equation, is described in detail. The effective mass Schrödinger equation is solved. The continuous energy spectrum of the system is discretized using adaptive mesh, resulting in energy levels that sample the density-of-states. By calculating time evolution of wavefunctions at sampled energies, time-dependent transport characteristics such as current and charge density distributions are obtained. Simulation results in a nanowire and a coaxially gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNTFET) are presented. Transient effects, e.g., finite rising time, are investigated in these devices.