A variational free-energy functional approach to the Schr\"{o}dinger-Poisson theory

ORAL

Abstract

In the numerical simulation of model electronic device systems, where electrons are typically under confinement, a key obstacle is the need to iteratively solve the coupled Schr\"{o}dinger-Poisson equation in order to obtain the electronic potential. We show that it is possible to bypass this obstacle by adopting a variational approach and obtaining the solution of the SP equation by minimizing a functional. We construct the required functional and establish some of its properties. We apply this formulation to the case of narrow channel quantum wells where the local density approximation yields accurate results.

Authors

  • Francisco J. Solis

    • School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Arizona State University
  • Vikram Jadhao

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University
    • Johns Hopkins University
  • Kaushik Mitra

    • None
  • Monica Olvera de la Cruz

    • Northwestern University
    • Northwestern Univ
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA