High-field hole transport in silicon nanowires

We report on ensemble Monte Carlo hole transport simulations for small diameter silicon nanowires. The basis for the simulations is provided by band structure calculations using sp3d5s tight-binding scheme. Principal scattering mechanisms considered are hole-bulk acoustic and optical phonon interactions. Both steady-state and transient hole transport characteristics are explored. For the silicon nanowires considered, the steady-state average hole drift velocity saturates due to optical phonon scattering. Acoustic and intersubband scattering mechanisms strongly prevent an oscillation in the hole velocity in the transient regime. Room temperature hole mean free path for the different silicon nanowires considered is evaluated to be less than 10 nm at various electric fields. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3264629