Eigensolutions of the Wigner-Eisenbud problem for a cylindrical nanowire within finite volume method

Abstract

We present a finite volume method for computing a representative range of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Schrödinger operator on a three dimensional cylindrically symmetric bounded domain with mixed boundary conditions. More specifically, we deal with a semiconductor nanowire which consists of a dominant host material and contains heterostructure features such as double-barriers or quantum dots. The three dimensional Schrödinger operator is reduced to a family of two dimensional Schrödinger operators distinguished by a centrifugal potential. Ultimately, we numerically treat them by means of a finite volume method. We consider a uniform, boundary conforming Delaunay mesh, which additionally conforms to the material interfaces. The 1/r singularity is eliminated by approximating r at the vertexes of the Voronoi boxes. We study how the anisotropy of the effective mass tensor acts on the uniform approximation of the first K eigenvalues and eigenvectors and their sequential arrangement. There exists an optimal uniform Delaunay discretization with matching anisotropy. This anisotropic discretization yields best accuracy also in the presence of a mildly varying scattering potential, shown exemplarily for a nanowire resonant tunneling diode. For potentials with 1/r singularity one retrieves the theoretically established first order convergence, while the second order convergence is recovered only on uniform grids with an anisotropy correction.