Galerkin Methods for Boltzmann-Poisson transport with reflection conditions on rough boundaries

TL;DR

This paper develops and analyzes numerical methods for Boltzmann-Poisson systems with reflective boundary conditions, including diffusive and specular reflections, in semiconductor device modeling at nano scales, using Discontinuous Galerkin schemes.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical approximation for mixed reflection boundary conditions with momentum-dependent specularity in Boltzmann-Poisson models.

Findings

Diffusive boundary conditions affect kinetic moments throughout the domain.

The numerical scheme accurately models insulating boundary conditions.

Reflection conditions influence physical observables in electron transport simulations.

Abstract

We consider in this paper the mathematical and numerical modelling of reflective boundary conditions (BC) associated to Boltzmann - Poisson systems, including diffusive reflection in addition to specularity, in the context of electron transport in semiconductor device modelling at nano scales, and their implementation in Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) schemes. We study these BC on the physical boundaries of the device and develop a numerical approximation to model an insulating boundary condition, or equivalently, a pointwise zero flux mathematical condition for the electron transport equation. Such condition balances the incident and reflective momentum flux at the microscopic level, pointwise at the boundary, in the case of a more general mixed reflection with momentum dependant specularity probability $p(\vec{k})$. We compare the computational prediction of physical observables given by the numerical implementation of these different reflection conditions in our DG scheme for BP models, and observe that the diffusive condition influences the kinetic moments over the whole domain in position space.