A prominent tool to study the dynamics of open quantum systems is the reduced density matrix. Yet, approaching open quantum systems by means of state vectors has well known computational advantages. In this respect, the physical meaning of the so-called conditional states in Markovian and non-Markovian scenarios has been a topic of recent debate in the construction of stochastic Schrödinger equations. We shed light on this discussion by acknowledging the Bohmian conditional wavefunction as the proper mathematical object to represent, in terms of state vectors, an arbitrary subset of degrees of freedom. As an example of the practical utility of these states, we present a time-dependent quantum Monte Carlo algorithm to describe electron transport in open quantum systems under general (Markovian or non-Markovian) conditions. By making the most of trajectory-based and wavefunction methods, the resulting simulation technique extends, to the quantum regime, the computational capabilities that the Monte Carlo solution of the Boltzmann transport equation offers for semi-classical electron devices.
Because of its large Fermi velocity, leading to a great mobility, graphene is expected to play an important role in (small signal) radio frequency electronics. Among other, graphene devices based on Klein tunneling phenomena are already envisioned. The connection between the Klein tunneling times of electrons and cut-off frequencies of graphene devices is not obvious. We argue in this paper that the trajectory-based Bohmian approach gives a very natural framework to quantify Klein tunneling times in linear band graphene devices because of its ability to distinguish, not only between transmitted and reflected electrons, but also between reflected electrons that spend time in the barrier and those that do not. Without such distinction, typical expressions found in the literature to compute dwell times can give unphysical results when applied to predict cut-off frequencies. In particular, we study Klein tunneling times for electrons in a two-terminal graphene device constituted by a potential barrier between two metallic contacts. We show that for a zero incident angle (and positive or negative kinetic energy), the transmission coefficient is equal to one, and the dwell time is roughly equal to the barrier distance divided by the Fermi velocity. For electrons incident with a non-zero angle smaller than the critical angle, the transmission coefficient decreases and dwell time can still be easily predicted in the Bohmian framework. The main conclusion of this work is that, contrary to tunneling devices with parabolic bands, the high graphene mobility is roughly independent of the presence of Klein tunneling phenomena in the active device region.
An intrinsic electron injection model for linear band two-dimensional (2D) materials, like graphene, is presented and its coupling to a recently developed quantum time-dependent Monte Carlo simulator for electron devices, based on the use of stochastic Bohmian conditional wave functions, is explained. The simulator is able to capture the full (DC, AC, transient and noise) performance of 2D electron devices. In particular, we demonstrate that the injection of electrons with positive and negative kinetic energies is mandatory when investigating high frequency performance of linear band materials with Klein tunneling, while traditional models dealing with holes (defined as the lack of electrons) can lead to unphysical results. We show that the number of injected electrons is bias-dependent, implying that an extra charge is required to get self-consistent results. Interestingly, we provide a successful comparison with experimental DC data. Finally, we predict that a genuine high-frequency signature due to a roughly constant electron injection rate in 2D linear band electron devices (which is missing in 2D parabolic band ones) can be used as a band structure tester.
Measuring properties of quantum systems is governed by a stochastic (collapse or state-reduction) law that unavoidably yields an uncertainty (variance) associated with the corresponding mean values. This non-classical source of uncertainty is known to be manifested as noise in the electrical current of nanoscale electron devices, and hence it can flaw the good performance of more complex quantum gates. We propose a protocol to alleviate this quantum uncertainty that consists of (i) redesigning the device to accommodate a large number of electrons inside the active region, either by enlarging the lateral or longitudinal areas of the device and (ii) re-normalizing the total current to the number of electrons. How the above two steps can be accommodated using the present semiconductor technology has been discussed and numerically studied for a resonant tunneling diode and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, for classical and quantum computations, respectively. It is shown that the resulting protocol formally resembles the so-called collective measurements, although, its practical implementation is substantially different.
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