English

A Monte Carlo method for solving the NEGF equations for electron transport

Computational Physics 2018-05-28 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

We derive, by introducing restrictions to the lesser self energy, a Monte Carlo scheme that solves the NEGF equations for electron transport. In doing so we formally prove that the Monte Carlo estimator has an expectation value equal to the lead current of the NEGF solution, and we provide a simple test of the Monte Carlo scheme by calculating conductivity in nanowires within Buttiker's approximation of scattering. Good agreement between the Monte Carlo simulations and the alternative approaches are obtained, and we also demonstrate the existence of a regime where the Monte Carlo method is the fastest method. In our tests this regime is to extreme to be of practical use. We discuss various ways in which to speed up our prototype and how it can be extended to include more physics. Although the full applicability range of our assumptions about the lesser self energy remains to be better understood, we argue that they should apply as long as the transport process can be considered stationary.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1805.10164,
  title  = {A Monte Carlo method for solving the NEGF equations for electron transport},
  author = {Lars Musland and Espen Flage-Larsen and Joakim Bergli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.10164},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

47 pages, 9 figures, 2 appendixes. Appendix A has 5 subsections. Main text include 3 major sections: theoretical derivations, numerical tests and discussion of future development

R2 v1 2026-06-23T02:08:26.178Z