From wave-functions to current-voltage characteristics: overview of a Coulomb blockade device simulator using fundamental physical parameters

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present an accurate way, based on a physical description, to simulate Coulomb blockade devices. The method underlying the simulations depends only on fundamental parameters of the system and does not require the use of high level fitting parameters as tunneling conductances contrary to number of current Coulomb blockade simulators. It lies mainly on the transfer Hamiltonian formalism and Bardeen's formula within the framework of effective mass tensor. It can be applied to metallic Coulomb blockade devices as well as semiconductor ones. The details of this method are extensively reviewed from a theoretical point of view and the main results are presented. In particular, we study how to obtain tunneling rates information to deduce current/voltage characteristics of Metal-Insulator-Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIMIM) and Metal-Insulator-Si Quantum Dot-Insulator-Metal (MISiIM) structures.