Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Carbon nanotube based field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) are studied by using atomistic quantum transport simulation and numerical device simulation. Atomistic simulations are based on the non-equilibrium Green’s functions formalism, where self-consistent extended Hückel theory is used [1]. We apply a parameter set previously developed in our group to describe contacts between metals and carbon nanotubes with a density functional theory (DFT)-like accuracy [2]. Numerical device simulations based on the effective-mass Schrödinger equation are done for comparison [3] to highlight the strengths but also the limitations of this widely used method.
The studied CNTFETs consist of n-doped source- and drain-electrodes together with an ideal wrap-around gate. Thus, the transistor exhibits Ohmic contacts and is comparable to the one studied experimentally by Lu et al. [4]. Different CNTs with diameters ranging from 0.5 nm (7,0-CNT) to 1.3 nm (16,0-CNT) are compared. For larger diameters, band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) takes place, leading to ambipolar transfer characteristics. For small diameters, however, states within the channel are strongly localized and the BTBT is subsequently suppressed, resulting in very high on/off ratios of about 107 and ideal unipolar transfer characteristics. We investigate how different device parameters influence the device performance and show that the studied CNTFET shows excellent properties for channel lengths down to 8 nm and for a very small gate electrode of only 0.4 nm length. Finally, a comparison between the atomistic model and numerical device simulation is given. We show that the on- and off-currents are described in very good agreement and discuss the differences with respect to the switching behavior.
[1] Calculations performed using Atomistix ToolKit 12.8 (www.quantumwise.com)
[2] Zienert et al., Nanotechnology 25 (2014)
[3] Claus et al., Journal of Computational Electronics 13 (2014)
[4] Lu et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society 128 (2006)