Electronic Fluctuation of Graphene Nanoribbon MOSFETs Under a Full Quantum Dynamics Framework

The electronic fluctuation issue of the armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) is theoretically investigated under a full quantum dynamics framework. Besides the electrons, the behaviors of the C and H nuclei are also quantized, more rigorous than the common classical particle treatment. Simulation results show that the nuclear quantization will boost the atomic vibration and lead to the band structure deformation, resulting in the energy gap ( E
_g
) variation range from -49% to 32% at room temperature. The decrease of E
_g
is more favorable compared with the increase. Therefore, quantum transport simulations show that the E
_g
fluctuations will increase the leakage current by more than three orders of magnitude in AGNR MOSFETs, degrading the off-state behavior significantly. Moreover, the out-of-order channel structure can also boost the scattering effect, degrading the on-state behavior. The electronic fluctuation caused by atomic vibrations should be highlighted in low-dimensional semiconductor device applications.