An Environment-dependent Semi-Empirical Tight Binding Model Suitable for Electron Transport in Bulk Metals, Metal Alloys, Metallic Interfaces and Metallic Nanostructures II - Effect of Confinement and Homogeneous Strain on Cu Conductance

摘要

The Semi-Empirical TB model developed in part I is applied to metal transportproblems of current relevance in part II. A systematic study of the effect ofquantum confinement, transport orientation and homogeneous strain on electronictransport properties of Cu is carried out. It is found that quantum confinementfrom bulk to nanowire boundary conditions leads to significant anisotropy inconductance of Cu along different transport orientations. Compressivehomogeneous strain is found to reduce resistivity by increasing the density ofconducting modes in Cu. The [110] transport orientation in Cu nanowires isfound to be the most favorable for mitigating conductivity degradation since itshows least reduction in conductance with confinement and responds mostfavorably to compressive strain.