Single dopant nanowire transistors: Influence of phonon scattering and temperature

A three-dimensional self-consistent non-equilibrium Green's function approach is used to investigate the influence of phonon scattering in single dopant nanowire transistors. Phonon interactions are described within the self-consistent Born approximation in which both acoustic and optical phonons are included. Transport properties are then analyzed in the ballistic and scattering regimes. Ballistic results first confirm the current hysteresis due to two different screening mechanisms of the dopant reported by Mil'nikov et-al [1]. The transition between them is smoothed by the interactions with acoustic phonons which suppress the current hysteresis. Interestingly our findings also show a beneficial impact of the optical phonon interactions. They generate a phonon-assisted resonant tunneling from which can result a higher current than in the ballistic regime. Finally a temperature dependance analysis shows that the hysteresis should be restored at lower temperatures.