Viktor A. Sverdlov

Single-electron soliton avalanches in tunnel-junction arrays

Numerical modeling of correlated single-electron tunneling in uniform two-dimensional arrays of small conducting islands separated by tunnel junctions shows the possibility of soliton-antisoliton avalanches. Though the time duration of any avalanche and the total charge,

Quantum mechanical modeling of advanced sub-10 nm MOSFETs

\ensuremath{\Delta}Q=ne,

A numerical study of transport and shot noise in 2D hopping

transferred across the array during the avalanche are always finite in arrays with length N larger than certain critical value

A numerical study of Coulomb interaction effects on 2D hopping transport

{N}_{c}

Effective boundary conditions for carriers in ultrathin SOI channels

and large width M, the avalanche magnitude n may be exponentially large, resulting in particular in a giant increase of shot noise. Thermal fluctuations gradually suppress the avalanche effect. Background charge disorder may lead (in larger arrays) to a gradual change of avalanche character and to a crossover from the avalanche-induced shot noise to

Coulomb Interaction Effects on 2D Hopping Transport

1/f

Numerical Study of 2D Hopping at Coulomb Interaction

-type noise.

Silicon MOSFETs: Fundamental Limits to Scaling

We have carried out numerical modeling of sub-10 nm double-gate Si MOSFETs with ultra-thin, intrinsic channel connecting n/sup +/-doped source and drain, using the self-consistent solution of the Schrodinger and Poisson equations. Two simple models of transistors with raised electrodes and with thin source and drain extensions are compared. Results show that devices of both types can be scaled to at least 5 nm gate length. However, already below /spl sim/10 nm the exponentially growing sensitivity of transistor parameters (in particular, the gate voltage threshold) to very small variations of device size may become a major challenge for the Moores law extension beyond this frontier.

Coulomb gap and Coulomb blockade in tunnel junction arrays.

We have used modern supercomputer facilities to carry out extensive Monte Carlo simulations of 2D hopping (at negligible Coulomb interaction) in conductors with a completely random distribution of localized sites in both space and energy, within a broad range of the applied electric field E and temperature T, both within and beyond the variable-range hopping region. The calculated properties include not only dc current and statistics of localized site occupation and hop lengths, but also the current fluctuation spectrum. Within the calculation accuracy, the model does not exhibit 1/f noise, so that the low-frequency noise at low temperatures may be characterized by the Fano factor F. For sufficiently large samples, F scales with conductor length L as (L(c)/L)(α), where α = 0.76 ± 0.08<1, and parameter L(c) is interpreted as the average percolation cluster length. At relatively low E, the electric field dependence of parameter L(c) is compatible with the law [Formula: see text] which follows from directed percolation theory arguments.

Describing Hopping by Nonlinear Resistor Networks

We have extended our supercomputer-enabled Monte Carlo simulations of hopping transport in completely disordered 2D conductors to the case of substantial electron-electron Coulomb interaction. Such interaction may not only suppress the average value of hopping current, but also affect its fluctuations rather substantially. In particular, the spectral density S(I)(f) of current fluctuations exhibits, at sufficiently low frequencies, a 1/f-like increase which approximately follows the Hooge scaling, even at vanishing temperature. At higher f, there is a crossover to a broad range of frequencies in which S(I)(f) is nearly constant, hence allowing characterization of the current noise by the effective Fano factor [Formula: see text]. For sufficiently large conductor samples and low temperatures, the Fano factor is suppressed below the Schottky value (F = 1), scaling with the length L of the conductor as F = (L(c)/L)(α). The exponent α is significantly affected by the Coulomb interaction effects, changing from α = 0.76 ± 0.08 when such effects are negligible to virtually unity when they are substantial. The scaling parameter L(c), interpreted as the average percolation cluster length along the electric field direction, scales as [Formula: see text] when Coulomb interaction effects are negligible and [Formula: see text] when such effects are substantial, in good agreement with estimates based on the theory of directed percolation.