Electrostatics in semiconducting devices I: The pure electrostatics self consistent approximation, by Antonio Lacerda-Santos, Xavier Waintal

SciPost Physics Home Authoring Refereeing Submit a manuscript About Electrostatics in semiconducting devices I: The pure electrostatics self consistent approximation Antonio Lacerda-Santos, Xavier Waintal SciPost Phys. 20, 100 (2026) · published 7 April 2026 doi: 10.21468/SciPostPhys.20.4.100 pdf BiBTeX RIS Submissions/Reports Abstract In quantum nanoelectronics devices, the electrostatic energy is the largest energy scale at play and, to a large extent, it determines the charge distribution inside the devices. Here, we introduce the Pure Electrostatic Self Consistent Approximation (PESCA) that provides a minimum model that describes how to include a semiconductor in an electrostatic calculation to properly account for both screening and partial depletion due to e.g. field effect. We show how PESCA may be used to reconstruct the charge distribution from the measurement of pinch-off phase diagrams in the gate voltages space. PESCA can also be extended to account for the magnetic field and calculate the edge reconstruction in the quantum Hall regime. The validity of PESCA is controlled by a small parameter $\kappa = C_g/C_q$, the ratio of the geometrical capacitance to the quantum capacitance, which is, in many common situations, of the order of 1%, making PESCA a quantitative technique for the calculation of the charge distribution inside devices. × TY - JOURPB - SciPost FoundationDO - 10.21468/SciPostPhys.20.4.100TI - Electrostatics in semiconducting devices I: The pure electrostatics self consistent approximationPY - 2026/04/07UR - https://scipost.org/SciPostPhys.20.4.100JF - SciPost PhysicsJA - SciPost Phys.VL - 20IS - 4SP - 100A1 - Lacerda-Santos, AntonioAU - Waintal, XavierAB - In quantum nanoelectronics devices, the electrostatic energy is the largest energy scale at play and, to a large extent, it determines the charge distribution inside the devices. Here, we introduce the Pure Electrostatic Self Consistent Approximation (PESCA) that provides a minimum model that describes how to include a semiconductor in an electrostatic calculation to properly account for both screening and partial depletion due to e.g. field effect. We show how PESCA may be used to reconstruct the charge distribution from the measurement of pinch-off phase diagrams in the gate voltages space. PESCA can also be extended to account for the magnetic field and calculate the edge reconstruction in the quantum Hall regime. The validity of PESCA is controlled by a small parameter $\kappa = C_g/C_q$, the ratio of the geometrical capacitance to the quantum capacitance, which is, in many common situations, of the order of 1%, making PESCA a quantitative technique for the calculation of the charge distribution inside devices.ER - × @Article{10.21468/SciPostPhys.20.4.100, title={{Electrostatics in semiconducting devices I: The pure electrostatics self consistent approximation}}, author={Antonio Lacerda-Santos and Xavier Waintal}, journal={SciPost Phys.}, volume={20}, pages={100}, year={2026}, publisher={SciPost}, doi={10.21468/SciPostPhys.20.4.100}, url={https://scipost.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.20.4.100},} Ontology / Topics See full Ontology or Topics database. Quantum Hall effect Screening Authors / Affiliations: mappings to Contributors and Organizations See all Organizations. 1 2 Antonio Lacerda-Santos, 1 2 Xavier Waintal 1 Université Grenoble Alpes / Grenoble Alpes University [UGA] 2 Centre d'études nucléaires de Grenoble / CEA Grenoble [CENG] Funders for the research work leading to this publication Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR] Horizon 2020 (through Organization: European Commission [EC])