Impact of different electron-phonon scattering models on the electron transport in a quantum wire

The non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) approach has been widely used to describe quantum transport in nanostructures. In general, the Electron-phonon (e-ph) interaction is regarded to be local in space, as transport simulations using non-local e-ph interactions are very computationally intensive. As such non-local interactions are rarely used to simulate nanotransistors. In this work, non-local e-ph interactions in the self-consistent Born approximation (SCBA) are used to simulate transport through a quantum wire. The non-local model is compared with the results for local, nearest-neighbour and second nearest- neighbour interactions. It was found that for a 40nm quantum wire with a dephasing factor of D0 0.001 eV2 and an applied potential of 0.1V, the local model underestimates the current by 20%. Furthermore, to study electron transport in Graphene and polymers, non-local e-ph interactions must be considered.