Electronic and Thermal Properties of Silicon Nanowires

Abstract

Electron mobility and thermal conductivity of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) of different cross sections were calculated by including scattering of electrons due to confined acoustic phonons, optical phonons, and surface roughness. A reduction in the acoustic phonon group velocity due to the spatial confinement in SiNWs is found to result in lower electron mobility and thermal conductivity compared to the bulk phonon approximation. Among the square SiNWs considered, a SiNW of cross section 6 nm x 6 nm was found to have the highest electron mobility due to the interplay of volume inversion and subband modulation.