Daniel j's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: Designing the Future: Revolutionizing Semiconductor Simulations
BASIS Advisor: Ms. Sandya Jayaraman
Internship Location: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Dragica Vasileska



Project Abstract

An important step when designing and developing new semiconductor nanotechnology is simulating the behavior of these transformative devices. There are many different types of simulations that researchers can perform, but this project specifically zooms in on electron transport simulations. These simulations are crucial for understanding how electrons behave in semiconductor devices under various conditions, which is especially important in the nanoscale world, where the laws of quantum physics take over. While there are various conventional and pre-existing calculation methods for creating these simulations, this project aims to address a newly developing method called the “Usuki method.” The reason we are investigating this method is because of its ability to efficiently and accurately output electron density. Given these advantages, it is still under development, which is why I am currently working with Professor Dragica Vasileska and her team at ASU to test this method within different environments, such as various quantum geometries on the MoS2 2D layer semiconductor. Taking inspiration from existing simulation code from past experiments dealing with the Usuki method, we will build on them using Python to develop new code that takes inputs such as the different geometries or parameter variables and outputs transmission graphs and electron density simulations based on these Usuki calculations. Once this code is fully developed, we plan to create a Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool on nanoHUB that allows its users to adjust values and view these transport simulations.

    My Posts:

  • Until the End

    Hello and welcome to my final blog! Although I’m unfortunately not completely done with my project yet, this final update is still pretty exciting. While the GUI itself is still under development, I was able to work with another set of output files, this time from another geometry: the one-sided quantum dot. These output files... Read More

  • Becoming a True Coder

    I’ve learned so far that I have a lot more to learn. This past week started off great. I received new refined output files that got rid of the asymmetry problem from last week. Now, the entire animation was symmetric throughout, just as it should be. As this issue thankfully wasn’t because of an error... Read More

  • Editing and Refining

    This week, I worked on refining and improving the outputs of my code. After a few discussions with my mentor and my research group, we came to the agreement that creating a GIF to visualize the electron density graphs isn’t exactly the best way to go about simulating transport. The GIF does indeed display how... Read More

  • It’s the Small Things

    It’s amazing how the same code can produce wildly different results just by changing a few small things. That’s what happened when I increased the total energy levels to 400 frames. After Mr. Speyer ran his Usuki calculations again for a quantum wire with a well going through it with an increase in total energy... Read More

  • Accidental Optimization

    This is my third week of working with the output files, and, I have to admit, I’m a bit tired of it. This week, I began by trying to solve the error from last week’s blog that kept occurring when I ran my code on ASU’s Sol supercomputer. But unfortunately, this issue actually turned out... Read More

  • Looping Nightmare

    In coding, looping through something 200 times sounds like a simple task. Turns out, it’s not so simple when each time you go through the loop, you have to generate a picture. Visualizing a single frame was easy enough. It generated a picture of the electron density graph a few seconds after running the code.... Read More

  • Turning Numbers into Pictures

    Last week, I worked with the input side of the GUI simulations. This week, I worked on the other end, familiarizing myself with the output files and how they worked.  There are two types of outputs that this GUI needs to produce: the Energy vs. Transmissions Graph and the Electron Density Graph. When I was initially... Read More

  • Quantum Mishmash

    Creating weird shapes sounds fun. Until you have to code it. This past week, I worked mostly to further develop the code that I had started writing in the prior week. There were three main geometries that I had to work on—the quantum point contact (QPC), the quantum dot, and the one-sided quantum dot. These... Read More

  • It’s in Fortran???

    As much as I love reading about the theoretical aspects of my project, I must also consider how to apply that theory to give it a physical form. So, as all engineers must do at some point, I turned to computer science. Starting off, even with my background in coding, especially with Python and Java,... Read More

  • How Small Can You Go?

    Despite the vastness of our universe, many of us find ourselves wondering not about the glistening stars in the sky but instead about a single atom and the paradoxically vast quantum world inside it. And among these philosophers are semiconductor nanotechnology experts and researchers, who focus on creating smaller and more efficient pieces of technology... Read More