Master-Equation Study of Quantum Transport in Realistic Semiconductor Devices Including Electron-Phonon and Surface-Roughness Scattering

In conventional theoretical methods for studying dissipative quantum transport, numerical complexity forces us to ignore important nonlocal effects, or to restrict attention to very small or one-dimensional systems. The authors present an efficient method, based on the Pauli master equation, that treats dissipative quantum transport while explicitly taking into account the nonlocal and inelastic nature of the scattering processes. Applying the method to a realistic semiconductor device reveals that, even at the nanoscale, electronic transport is predominantly dissipative, and demonstrates quantitatively that scattering due to interface roughness has a drastic impact on device performance.