Analytical Modelling of Electronic Properties of

Carbon Nanotubes and Its Utilization in an

Analytical Model for Carbon Nanotube Field-
Effect Transistors
Md. Ayaz Masud
1015062209
EEE 6407, Oct 2016
Outline
Motivation
Derivation of Density of States
Calculation of Effective Mass
Carrier Density
CNTFET
Analytical Modelling of CNTFET
Limitations
References Md. Ayaz Masud
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Motivation
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown excellent promise owing to their nanoscale
size and excellent 1-D electrostatics.
Great current carrying capability .
Long mean free path.
The density of states (DOS), one of the most important functions needed to explore
many properties of CNTs, is often calculated numerically from the tight-binding
energy dispersion relation.
An analytical DOS will find widespread use in determining basic transport in CNT
devices. It can also be utilized in the development of fast compact models for
circuit simulation.
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Density of States (DOS)
An exact analytical DOS for achiral CNTs from the nearest neighbor tight-
binding (NNTB) energy dispersion is derived in this work. The derived
analytical DOS explicitly reveals the essential physics such as van-Hove
singularities (vHs), its periodicity with respect to band index, and its
dependence on chirality [1].

In addition, the results derived in this paper for achiral semiconducting and
metallic CNTs are generally applicable to the chiral equivalent of the same
type, with similar diameters for energies within the vicinity of the Fermi
energy.
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Derivation of DOS
The 1-D NNTB energy dispersion relation for zigzag (n,0) and armchair (n,n) CNTs with band index q
are, respectively[2]

where, q is an integer and 1<q<2n ;

o is the nearest neighbor overlap energy nominally between 2.5 and 3.2 eV;
K is the reciprocal lattice wave vector;
a is the graphene Bravais lattice constant (2.46 )
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Derivation of DOS (contd.)
Let us consider a zigzag tube of infinite length for analytical simplicity.
For such a CNT , DOS can be expressed as,

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Derivation of DOS (contd.)
The wave vector of a zigzag CNT can be calculated from the energy
dispersion relation in eq. (1)

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Derivation of DOS (contd.)

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Derivation of DOS (contd.)

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Derivation of DOS (contd.)

Here, zone degeneracy accounts for the contribution from the other
half of the first Brillouine zone (BZ). =1, if energy is at the center of
the BZ and 2 otherwise. Md. Ayaz Masud
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 Derivation of DOS (contd.)

This equation is applicable for EcbE Ect for the conduction band
and EvbE Evt for the valence band. Ecb and Ect are the bottom
and top of the conduction band, respectively, and E vb and Evt are
the bottom and top of the valence band, respectively.

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Derivation of DOS (contd.)
Eq. (6) can be rewritten as,

where, Evh1 and Evh2 are the vHs energies which define the energy space where the
DOS is finite and real.

The energies of vHs are chirality dependent and periodic with period 2n.
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Derivation of DOS (contd.)
Evh1 is located at the point and Evh2 is located in the second
Brillouine zone.
Several workers have previously examined the properties of the vHs
and their dependence on diameter and chirality indirectly through
computation. But in (8), their explicit analyticaldependence is
demonstrated. These two singularities generally reflect the two
minima/maxima present in a periodic sinusoid. In the case of a
CNT, it is the quasi-sinusoidal energy dispersion that leads to vHs.

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Derivation of DOS (contd.)
The total number of states between E and E+dE is the definite integral of eq. (3)

Hence, the DOS at the Fermi energy for all metallic zigzag CNTs is,

This is in well agreement with the results published in [2].

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Validation of DOS
The analytical model of DOS is validated by using this model for the
calculation of effective mass and charge density in CNT.
After calculating these parameters analytically, these were checked
against established results from experimental and numerical works.

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Calculation of Effective Mass
The standard formula for effective mass is

Since this is a function of K, this work derived it explicitly as a function

of energy and reused the aforementioned results for the DOS. By
equating the particle force to the wave force, the effective mass (m) is

Using (4) and (7), zigzag CNT m* is ,

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Effective mass in the conduction band minima is a very important
parameter. From this equation it is calculated to be,

For the 1.5 nm (19,0) CNT, which has been used as a candidate for
channel material in various previous works, m* is found to be 0.053m0 ,
which is in good agreement with results obtained from parabolic
approximation.
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Effective Mass

Fig-1: Effective mass of the first conduction band for the 1-nm (13, 0), 1.5-nm (19, 0), and 2-nm (25, 0) CNTs.
o = 2.7 eV. The energies have been normalized such that the band minimum is at 0 eV.
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Carrier Density

Fig-2: Illustrative plot of the DOS and FermiDirac (FD)

distribution at equilibrium. (a) Conduction and valence band DOS.
(b) FD for (solid) electrons and (dashed) holes. (c) DOS multiplied
by the FD (has the form of a modified Bessel function of the second
kind), showing that, essentially, only the first subband contributes to
carrier density

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Carrier Density
The electron carrier density (n) per subband is the total number of
occupied states in the subband

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Carrier Density

Total electron carrier density n is a sum over all subbands.

However, because the 1-D subbands are discretely
spaced and the tail of the FermiDirac distribution is exponentially
decaying, only the first subband contributes appreciably
to the total electron carrier density for the nondegenerate case

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Carrier Density
By substituting, Evh1=Eg/2 and Evh2= Evh1+20

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Carrier Density
The intrinsic carrier density (EF =0)is

The electron carrier density is

The hole carrier density

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Carrier Density

Fig-3: Semiconducting zigzag intrinsic carrier density

calculated using (14) with a subband degeneracy of
two. Compared with NNTB simulations, the maximum
|error| < 6% for temperatures from 100 C to 500 C.
The maximum error is 1.3% for d = 1 nm, 2.3% for d =
1.5 nm, 3.7% for d = 2 nm, and 5.2% for d = 3 nm.
The additional small error results from approximating
the modified Bessel function.

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CNTFET
Better control over channel formation
Better threshold voltage
High electron mobility
High current density
High subthreshold slope
High transconductance

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Analytical Modelling of Wrap-Gate CNTFET
Among the various structural options for a CNTFET, the wrap-gate or gate-all-
around geometry offers a theoretically ideal choice, used in nearly all studies of
the operation and performance limits of CNTFETs [3].
It offers improved control over the channel due to complete encapsulation and
allows for more aggressive device scaling due to smaller screening lengths in
comparison with back-gate and top-gate structures.
Furthermore, this structure protects the nanotube channel from the influence
of neighboring devices and stray charges known to cause variations and
instability. It also makes them compatible with successive wire level
processing.
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 Analytical Modelling of Wrap-Gate CNTFET

(a) (b)
Fig-4: (a) Wrap-gate CNTFET structure, (b) 2D ballistic transistor circuit model for CNTFET

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Algorithm for Proposed Model
1. Calculate effective Cg, considering electrostatic effects. Since we consider a
single channel, consider only Cinf for each part [4].

2. Calculate the bias-induced mobile charge N= N 1+ N2 - N0; N1 and N2 are the

charge induced in source and drain respectively and N 0 is the equilibrium charge
density.
3. Calculate self consistent potential Uscf by adding Laplace potential UL (for
specific Vd and Vg) and potential due to mobile charge UP (for N calculated in
step 2).
4. Compute F1 and F2 for the calculated Uscf
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Algorithm for Proposed Model (Contd)
5. Calculate ID for the computed F1 and F2 using the nonideality parameter .
6. Repeat steps 25 for all the possible combinations of Vd and Vg in the chosen
range.
7. Use EF , g, d, and as fitting parameters to optimizethe obtained transfer and
output characteristics.

Finally, the drain current ID is evaluated as the differencebetween currents I1 and I2

due to source and drain carriers, respectively. The integral expressions for these are
in turn approximated analytically as

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 Analytical Modelling of Wrap-Gate CNTFET

(a) (b)
Fig-5: (a) Comparison of log-linear transfer characteristics and (b) linear transfer characteristics for various drain bias
voltages between experimental data and simulated results.
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Analytical Modelling of Wrap-Gate CNTFET

Fig-6: Comparison of output characteristics for

various gate bias voltages between experimental
data and simulated results.

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Limitations
The simple NNTB energy dispersions do not include the effects of
nanotube curvature, which has been computed to be significant for
small CNTs with sub-1-nm diameters.
Additionally, the overlap parameter, which reportedly has a near zero
value, has been set to zero for simplicity to arrive at dispersion relation
in (1) and (2).
Most accuracy is achieved at lowest subbands with diameter greater
than 1nm.

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References
[1 D. Akinwande, Y. Nishi, and H. S. P. Wong, An analytical derivation of the density of
] states, effective mass, and carrier density for achiral carbon nanotubes, IEEE Trans.
Electron Devices, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 289297, Jan. 2008.
[2 R. Saito, G. Dresselhaus, and M. S. Dresselhaus, Physical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes.
] London, U.K.: Imperial College Press, 1998.
[3 J. Luo et al. , Compact Model for Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors Including
] Nonidealities and Calibrated With Experimental Data Down to 9-nm Gate Length, IEEE
Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 60, no. 6, June 2013
[4 V. Dokania et al. , Analytical Modeling of Wrap-Gate Carbon Nanotube FET With
] Parasitic Capacitances and Density of States, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 63, no. 8,
Aug 2016

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 Thank You
Any Questions?

For any further query, please contact:

ayazmasud21@gmail.com
ayazmasud@eee.buet.ac.bd

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