Quantum Kinetic Equation for the Wigner Equation and Reduction to the Boltzmann Transport Equation under Discrete Impurities

TL;DR

This paper derives a quantum kinetic equation for the Wigner function considering discrete impurities, clarifies the impurity scattering treatment, and reduces it to a Boltzmann transport equation suitable for semiconductor nanostructures.

Contribution

It introduces a consistent quantum kinetic framework for impurity scattering and derives a Boltzmann transport equation without assuming random impurity distributions.

Findings

Collision integral and drift term derived on equal footing

Inconsistency in conventional impurity scattering treatment identified

Boltzmann equation accounts for discrete impurity effects

Abstract

We drive a quantum kinetic equation under discrete impurities for the Wigner function from the quantum Liouville equation. To attain this goal, the electrostatic Coulomb potential is separated into the long- and short-range parts, and the self-consistent coupling with Poisson's equation is explicitly taken into account. It is shown that the collision integral associated with impurity scattering as well as the usual drift term is derived on an equal footing and that the conventional treatment of impurity scattering under the Wigner function scheme is inconsistent in the sense that the collision integral is introduced in an ad hoc way and, thus, the short-range part of the impurity potential is double-counted. The Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) is derived without imposing an assumption of random impurity configurations over the substrate. The derived BTE is able to describe the discrete nature of impurities such as potential fluctuations and, thus, appropriate to analyze electron transport under semiconductor nanostructures.