ECE 5390 / MSE 5472: Quantum Transport in Electron Devices and Novel Materials

Fall 2015, Cornell University

 

Instructor

Prof. Debdeep Jena (web)

Departments of ECE and MSE, Cornell University

 

Class Hours

MW 8:40 – 9:55 am  [+ some Fridays 8:40 – 9:55 am]

Location: Phillips Hall 203, Official Link

Office hours: MW 10:00-11:00 am @ Phillips 415

 

Prerequisites

Quantum mechanics, and ECE 4070 (or an equivalent course in solid-state physics).

 

About the course

Modern electronic and photonic devices are increasingly incorporating new materials with a richer set of underlying physical phenomena in transport that are not covered in traditional materials and device courses.  A deep understanding of the underlying physics is key to controlling, and designing devices based on transport and electrostatics.  This course first connects the traditional “continuum” transport physics of micron-scale devices, to coherent quantum transport in nanoscale devices, and shows the major technical bottlenecks device physicists and engineers face in the coming decades.  By rigorously developing emergent topological and correlated ideas in quantum transport, the course will arm students with tools that will be used to invent new devices in the future.

 

Topics

Part I: Review of fundamentals

            1: Review of classical and quantum mechanics                                     

            2: Current flow in quantum mechanics                                                 

            3: Quantum statistics, quest for equilibrium as the driver for transport                         

       Part II: Single-particle transport

            4: Ballistic transport: Quantized conductance, Ballistic MOSFETs                               

            5: Transmission and tunneling, Tunneling FETs                                              

            6. Closed vs. open systems, the Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function approach to transport

            7. Fermi’s golden rule, Diffusive transport: Boltzmann transport equation, scattering, Electron-phonon interactions

            8. High-field effects, Gunn diodes and oscillators for high-frequency power

            9. Feynman path integrals, the Aharonov Bohm effect and Weak Localization

       Part III: Geometrical and topological quantum mechanics, unification with relativity

            10: Spin, transport in a magnetic field, Quantum Hall effect, Berry phase in quantum mech

            11: Chern numbers, Edge/Topological states, Topological insulators and Majorana Fermions

       Part IV: Many-particle correlated transport

            12: Fock-space way of thinking transport, second quantization, conductance anomalies

            13: BCS theory of superconductivity, Josephson junctions

            14. Landau/Ginzburg theories of phase transitions due to broken symmetry                

 

Handouts/Notes/[Reading]

Tentative course calendar

Slides for illustration

1) Notes 1: Quantum mechanics recap  [HK(see below), other QMech texts]

2) Notes 2: Quantum currents, equilibrium, ballistic FETs  [LN Chp 16, QMech texts]

3) Notes 3: Tunneling transport and low-power switches  [HK, FCT]

4) Notes 4: Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function  [LN, QT]

5) Notes 5: Golden Rule, Boltzmann, Transport  [FCT]

6) Notes 6: Feynman path integrals, Aharonov-Bohm and Weak Localization

7) Notes 7: Berry Phase effects on quantum transport

8) Notes 8: Many-Particle effects on transport: Conductance ‘anomalies’, and Superconductivity

 

Lecture Videos

Link

 

Assignments

1 - pdf  posted: 08/27/2015      due: 09/09/2015                       solutions

2 - pdf  posted: 09/13/2015      due: 09/23/2015                       solutions

3 - pdf  posted: 09/27/2015      due: 10/09/2015                       solutions

4 - pdf  posted: 10/14/2015      due: 10/23/2015                       solutions

5 - pdf  posted: 12/03/2015      due: 12/11/2015                       solutions

 

Projects

Suggested topics

Final presentation schedule

 

Textbooks

The following texts are excellent references for the course: 

-Lessons from Nanoelectronics [LN] (Datta)

-Quantum Transport [QT] (Datta)

-Fundamentals of Carrier Transport [FCT] (Lundstrom)

-Quantum Mechanics [HK] (Kroemer)

 

Grading

TBD

 

Contact

Email: djena at cornell dot edu if you have any questions