Full-Band Quantum Simulations of Semiconductor Devices based on Empirical Pseudopotential Hamiltonians in the presence of Phonon Scattering and Non-Radiative Recombination

We present a full-band quantum transport model based on the Empirical Pseudopotential Method (EPM) that includes electron-phonon scattering and Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination via non-radiative multiphonon relaxation. The model has been used to simulate the current-voltage characteristics of two different Silicon-based devices and it shows that a) in a p-i-n diode, SRH recombination gives the dominant contribution to the OFF-state current of the junction, while phonon scattering is responsible for the degradation of the current in the ON-state; b) the inclusion of SRH recombination in the simulation of an Esaki tunneling diode predicts a reduction of the peak-to-valley current ratio, while phonon scattering enhances indirect tunneling transitions from the valence band in Γ to the conduction band minima in the Δ valleys that are not located along the transport direction.