Author Topic: About the current of semiconductor nanotube  (Read 3821 times)

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Offline chp

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About the current of semiconductor nanotube
« on: October 28, 2011, 10:30 »
Hi:

Recently, I have performed some test calculations on the I-V characteristics of semiconductor SiC nanobube. It is shown that the SiC nanotube has a band gap of 1.55 eV. However, it need about 3.5 V bias to inject a current in the nanotube? (Please see the attached python script and the pictures) Why? Is there any mistake?

Thanks in advance!

Offline nori

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Re: About the current of semiconductor nanotube
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2011, 12:33 »
It seems that there is no mistake in your calculation, so it would make some sense physically.
One possible reason is that the band to band tunneling around the Fermi level is forbidden.
Why don't you calculate transmission eigenstates at the fermi level under bias voltage 2.0V?

Offline Anders Blom

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Re: About the current of semiconductor nanotube
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2011, 12:37 »
You forgot the Python attachment, however I think the explanation is not so difficult. As your transmission spectrum shows, the band gap you mention is the zero-bias band gap; at finite bias, electrostatic effects increase the effective band gap. Provided your calculation is otherwise correctly set up, this is not too surprising.

This, in fact, demonstrates a truly important point: it is very dangerous to draw conclusions of finite-bias behavior from zero-bias properties, as the bias itself influences the electronic structure and thus influences the transport properties. The "naive linear response assumption" which one can find in some articles is that T(E) is independent of the bias, but this is very rarely true.

Offline chp

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Re: About the current of semiconductor nanotube
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2011, 15:02 »
Thank you for your reply!

As Anders Blom indicates that at finite bias, electrostatic effects increase the effective band gap. But we also can observe that there are nonzero transmission values near the Fermi level in transmission spectrum when the bias voltage is larger than 3.6 V. I want to know where it comes from?

Thanks again!