Charge Transport Across the Interface

Abstract

Quantum-mechanical calculations of electron transport in semiconductor devices can be based on several formulations, among which are eigenfunctions of the Schrödinger equation, the density matrix [3], an approximate diagonalized density matrix, or the Wigner function [26]. In any case, boundary conditions at the edges of the device and interface conditions at material interfaces have to be considered. In the following, we will briefly discuss the basic concepts for quantum-mechanical boundary and interface conditions. These considerations will have implications on the respective conditions in the semi-classical case, which will be described in the subsequent sections.