2008/02/28 by Eunan J. McEniry, Thomas Frederiksen, Tchavdar N. Todorov +2
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.78.035446
published as Phys. Rev. B 78, 035446 (2008) · 12 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2008/02/28 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
A dynamical method for inelastic transport simulations in nanostructures is compared to a steady-state method based on nonequilibrium Green's functions. A simplified form of the dynamical method produces, in the steady state in the weak-coupling limit, effective self-energies analogous to those in the Born approximation due to electron-phonon coupling. The two methods are then compared numerically on a resonant system consisting of a linear trimer weakly embedded between metal electrodes. This system exhibits an enhanced heating at high biases and long phonon equilibration times. Despite the differences in their formulation, the static and dynamical methods capture local current-induced heating and inelastic corrections to the current with good agreement over a wide range of conditions, except in the limit of very high vibrational excitations where differences begin to emerge.