Nanoelectronic Devices: A Unified View

TL;DR

This paper presents a unified conceptual framework for nanoscale electronic devices, covering various materials and transport regimes, enhancing understanding of resistance and non-equilibrium phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces the NEGF-Landauer approach as a comprehensive model applicable across diverse nanoscale devices and regimes.

Findings

Unified description of nanoscale devices from molecular conductors to silicon transistors.

Applicable across ballistic to diffusive transport regimes.

Provides insights into resistance and non-equilibrium phenomena.

Abstract

Nanoscale electronic devices are of great interest for all kinds of applications like switching, energy conversion and sensing. The objective of this chapter, however, is not to discuss specific devices or applications. Rather it is to convey the conceptual framework that has emerged over the last twenty years, which is important not only because of the practical insights it provides into the design of nanoscale devices, but also because of the conceptual insights it affords regarding the meaning of resistance and the essence of all non-equilibrium phenomena in general. We present a unified description applicable to a wide variety of devices from molecular conductors to carbon nanotubes to silicon transistors covering different transport regimes from the ballistic to the diffusive limit, based on what we call the NEGF-Landauer approach.