Variational Quantum Linear Solver for Simulating Quantum Transport in Nanoscale Semiconductor Devices

Abstract: This work develops simulation methods that enable the application of the variational quantum linear solver (VQLS) to simulate quantum transport in nanoscale semiconductor devices. Most previous work on VQLS applications in semiconductor device simulations focuses on solving the Poisson equation, where the coefficient matrix of the sparse linear system is real and symmetric. Solving the quantum transport equation, however, leads to coefficient matrices that are complex and non-symmetric. This work addresses the challenges of applying VQLS to quantum transport simulations. We propose new forms of cost functions to solve complex and non-symmetric linear systems with faster computing speed. We further develop efficient decomposition methods for cost function evaluation, which target reducing the quantum circuit complexity and improving noise robustness when solving the quantum transport equation using the non-equilibrium Green's function method. While classical computation faces the challenge of the "curse of dimensionality" as the spatial-energy numerical grid dimensions grow, the proposed quantum-computing-based method scales logarithmically with the grid size, which offers a promising opportunity for addressing the computational challenges of solving quantum transport in semiconductor devices.