ABSTRACT
The necessity of faster and smaller devices is pushing the electronic
industry into developing electron devices with solid-state structures
of a few nanometers driven by picosecond signals. Electron dynam-
ics in such scenarios is in general governed by quantum mechanical
laws. This chapter is devoted to discuss how Bohmian mechanics
can help us to understand and model the behavior of novel electron
devices at the nanometer and picosecond scales. The adaptation
of Bohmian mechanics to electron transport in open systems leads
to a quantum Monte Carlo algorithm, where randomness appears
because of the uncertainties in the number of electrons, their
energies, and the initial positions of the (Bohmian) trajectories. A
general, versatile, and time-dependent three-dimensional (3D) elec-
tron transport simulator for nanoelectronic devices, namedBITLLES
(Bohmian Interacting Transport for nonequiLibrium eLEctronic
Structures), is presented, showing its ability for a full prediction
(direct current [DC], alternating current [AC], fluctuations, etc.) of
the electrical characteristics of any nanoelectronic device. See the
website https://europe.uab.es/bitlles. As a typical example of the
BITLLES capabilities, we discuss the performance of a resonant
tunneling diode.
