A broad theoretical approach to the investigation of mesoscopic electron devices

Nanofabrication technology has matured to a point where it is possible to realize mesoscopic semi-conductor structures with dimensions comparable to the phase coherence length of conducting electrons. Devices based on electron wave phenomena, like quantum interference, must be studied using quantum mechanical methods which are very computationally intensive. We have initially applied a tight-binding Green's function formalism to structures modelled as ideal electron wave-guides, looking at issues related to the realization of three-terminal quantum interference devices and to the more general problem of device interconnection. We also report on a highly efficient two-dimensional algorithm implementation for the self-consistent solution of the coupled Poisson and Schrödinger equations, necessary to investigate subband wavefunctions and energy levels in the cross-section of realistic electron waveguide structures, which we plan to incorporate in the approach.