Schrödinger equation Monte Carlo in three dimensions for simulation of carrier transport in three-dimensional nanoscale metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors

A quantum transport simulator, Schrödinger equation Monte Carlo (SEMC) in three dimensions, is presented that provides a rigorous yet reasonably computationally efficient quantum mechanical treatment of real scattering processes within quantum transport simulations of nanoscale three-dimensional (3D) metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) geometries such as quantum wire and multigate field-effect transistors. This work represents an extension of earlier versions of SEMC for simulating quantum transport and scattering in systems with relatively simpler quasi-one-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional geometries such as quantum-cascade lasers (via SEMC in one dimension) and silicon-on-insulator or dual-gate MOSFETs (via SEMC in two dimensions), respectively. However, the limiting computational considerations can be significantly different. The SEMC approach represents a variation in nonequilibrium Green’s function techniques with scattering as well as carrier injection into the simulation region treated via Monte Carlo techniques. Scattering mechanisms include intravalley and intervalley scatterings, intrasubband and intersubband scatterings via acoustic and optical phonons, and, in the former case, surface roughness scattering. SEMC-3D simulations of a silicon omega-gate nanoscale n-channel MOSFET are provided to illustrate the modeling technique as well as the complexity of scattering effects in such nanoscale devices.