Self-consistent contact block reduction method for ballistic nanodevices

Abstract

The authors have extended their previously developed contact block reduction (CBR) method for ballistic currents through arbitrarily shaped, multi-terminal two- or three-dimensional open devices to include charge self-consistency. We show that the calculation of the charge density of the open system throughout the device can be performed with an effort comparable to a single calculation of the eigenstates of a properly defined closed system. It is also shown that it is crucial to properly take into account both bound states and current carrying states.