The role of semiclassical and quantum transport
in the modelling of nanostructures and nanodevices
Carlo Jacoboni
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Via Campi 213/A, I-41100 Modena, Italy
carlo.jacoboni@unimore.it
The different regimes of semiclassical electron transport in semiconductors will first be reviewed:
self-averaging, mesoscopic, and ballistic. Different techniques will also be discussed for the solution of the Boltzmann transport equation.
Then, the conditions which require a fully quantum theory of electron transport will be analysed together with the different approaches. In particular the Wigner function (WF) and the non equilibrium Green function (NEGF) techniques will be described.
The dynamical equation for the WF will be derived and used to show that in many situations the
WF behaves as a classical distribution function, thus explaining why the semiclassical Boltzmann
equation gives good results even when its limits of validity seem to be exceeded.