Theory of Transport Properties of Semiconductor Nanostructures, 1998
Electronic Materials Series, Vol. 4

Recent advances in the fabrication of semiconductors have created almost un­ limited possibilities to design structures on a nanometre scale with extraordinary electronic and optoelectronic properties. The theoretical understanding of elec­ trical transport in such nanostructures is of utmost importance for future device applications. This represents a challenging issue of today's basic research since it requires advanced theoretical techniques to cope with the quantum limit of charge transport, ultrafast carrier dynamics and strongly nonlinear high-field ef­ fects. This book, which appears in the electronic materials series, presents an over­ view of the theoretical background and recent developments in the theory of electrical transport in semiconductor nanostructures. It contains 11 chapters which are written by experts in their fields. Starting with a tutorial introduction to the subject in Chapter 1, it proceeds to present different approaches to transport theory. The semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation is in the centre of the next three chapters. Hydrodynamic moment equations (Chapter 2), Monte Carlo techniques (Chapter 3) and the cellular au­ tomaton approach (Chapter 4) are introduced and illustrated with applications to nanometre structures and device simulation. A full quantum-transport theory covering the Kubo formalism and nonequilibrium Green's functions (Chapter 5) as well as the density matrix theory (Chapter 6) is then presented.

Introduction. Hydrodynamic simulation of semiconductor devices. Simulation of semiclassical transport. Cellular automata in high-field semiconductor transport. Quantum transport theory. Density matrix theory of coherent ultrafast dynamics. Dynamic and nonlinear transport in mesoscopic structures. Transport in systems with chaotic dynamics: lateral superlattices. Bloch oscillations and Wannier-Stark localization in semiconductor superlattices. Vertical transport and domain formation in multiple quantum wells. Scattering processes in low-dimensional semiconductor structures.

This book presents a state-of-the-art overview of theoretical methods, results, and applications in the field. It starts with a tutorial introduction to the subject, then in the following five chapters a hierarchy of different approaches to transport theory is presented, descending from a macroscopic level (quasihydrodynamic simulation) via semiclassical Monte Carlo techniques and cellular automata to a full quantum transport theory covering both Green's functions and density matrix theory. In the last five chapters the formalism is applied to more specific topics which are of great current interest such as transport in mesoscopic structures, chaotic dynamics in lateral superlattices, Bloch oscillations and Wannier-Stark localization, field domain formation in superlattices, and scatterin