Simulation of Electrical Characteristics of Silicon and Germanium Nanowires Progressively Doped to Zener Diode Configuration Using First Principle Calculations

The effect of incorporating pairs of dopant atoms of opposite polarities into the nanowire lattice on the electrical behavior of nanowires has been presented in this paper. The dopants used are boron and phosphorus atoms. Intrinsic silicon nanowire is incapacitated with boron-phosphorus dopant atom pairs in a progressive manner, starting from one pair to nine dopant-atom pairs. The nanowire is simulated each time an additional dopant pair is introduced in the nanowire lattice to obtain current-voltage characteristics. These characteristics have been compared with that obtained by introducing similar dopants in an intrinsic germanium nanowire lattice. The power efficiencies of both intrinsic and doped silicon and germanium nanowires have been discussed towards the end of the paper.