Abstract
A microscopic approach for the simulation of quantum-transport phenomena in systems with open boundaries is proposed. We show that the application of the conventional Wigner-function formalism to this problem leads to unphysical results, like injection of coherent electronic states from the contacts. To overcome such basic limitation, we propose a generalization of the standard Wigner-function formulation, able to properly describe the incoherent nature of carrier injection at the device spatial boundaries. The latter constitutes a quantum mechanical derivation of the phenomenological injection model commonly employed in the simulation of open quantum devices.
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Zaccaria, R.P., Iotti, R.C. & Rossi, F. Microscopic Modelling of Quantum Open Systems: A Generalized Wigner-Function Approach. Journal of Computational Electronics 2, 141–145 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JCEL.0000011415.34531.b1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JCEL.0000011415.34531.b1