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Physics Colloquium: Wenchang Lu

September 8, 2021 | 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Title: Simulations of Quantum Transport in Nanoscale Electronic Devices

Abstract: It is widely believed that Moore’s Law shrinkage of computer circuitry is approaching physical limits, beyond which conventional silicon-based integrated circuits will cease to function reliably due to the quantum effects, such as undesired current leakage by quantum tunneling. The beyond Moore’s Law advances in computer devices will thus depend on harnessing quantum effects to increase the speed of computing, decrease the energy cost of computation per elementary operation, and guarantee the integrity and reliability of computational results. However, no viable and cost-effective beyond Moore’s Law technology exists at present, despite many years of effort. Computational exploration of viability and efficiency of novel device concepts can dramatically speed up progress, identify the most promising candidates, and greatly diminish cost.

I will discuss the methodology and applications of first-principles simulations of nanoscale electronic devices. Quantum simulations of even the smallest devices are extremely demanding computationally. However, the fast development of high-performance supercomputers, which combine thousands of nodes containing multiple CPUs and GPUs, enables very large-scale calculations to explore and design the next-generation devices beyond the current limits. Two- dimensional materials, such as graphene, are emerging candidates for many advanced applications. In particular, graphene can be used to build transistors by engineering a band gap at the atomic scale. Another promising area is carbon nanotube-based molecular sensors because of its rich electronic properties and large surface area.

Host: Thomas Schäefer

Details

Date:
September 8, 2021
Time:
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Event Categories:
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