Nonequilibrium Green's function formulation of quantum transport theory for multi-band semiconductors

We present a nonequilibrium Green's function formulation of many-body quantum transport theory for multi-band semiconductor systems with a phonon bath. The equations are expressed exactly in terms of single particle nonequilibrium Green's functions and self-energies, treating the open electron-hole system in weak interaction with the bath. A decoupling technique is employed to separate the individual band Green's function equations of motion from one another, with the band-band interaction effects embedded in "cross-band" self-energies. This nonequilibrium Green's function formulation of quantum transport theory is amenable to solution by parallel computing because of its formal decoupling with respect to inter-band interactions. Moreover, this formulation also permits coding the simulator of an n-band semiconductor in terms of that for an (n - 1)-band system, in step with the current tendency and development of programming technology. Finally, the focus of these equations on individual bands provides a relatively direct route for the determination of carrier motion in energy bands, and to delineate the influence of intra- and inter-band interactions. A detailed description is provided for three-band semiconductor systems. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.