Atomistic simulation of transport phenomena in nanoelectronic devices

Computational chemistry deals with the first-principles calculation of electronic and crystal structures, phase diagrams, charge distributions, vibrational frequencies, or ion diffusivity in complex molecules and solids. Typically, none of these numerical experiments allows for the calculation of electrical currents under the influence of externally applied voltages. To address this issue, there is an imperative need for an advanced simulation approach capable of treating all kind of transport phenomena (electron, energy, momentum) at a quantum mechanical level. The goal of this tutorial review is to give an overview of the "quantum transport" (QT) research activity, introduce specific techniques such as the Non-equilibrium Green's Function (NEGF) formalism, describe their basic features, and underline their strengths and weaknesses. Three examples from the nanoelectronics field have been selected to illustrate the insight provided by quantum transport simulations. Details are also given about the numerical algorithms to solve the NEGF equations and about strategies to parallelize the workload on supercomputers.