An Environment-dependent Semi-Empirical Tight Binding Model Suitable for Electron Transport in Bulk Metals, Metal Alloys, Metallic Interfaces and Metallic Nanostructures II - Effect of Confinement and Homogeneous Strain on Cu Conductance

Abstract: The Semi-Empirical TB model developed in part I is applied to metal transport problems of current relevance in part II. A systematic study of the effect of quantum confinement, transport orientation and homogeneous strain on electronic transport properties of Cu is carried out. It is found that quantum confinement from bulk to nanowire boundary conditions leads to significant anisotropy in conductance of Cu along different transport orientations. Compressive homogeneous strain is found to reduce resistivity by increasing the density of conducting modes in Cu. The [110] transport orientation in Cu nanowires is found to be the most favorable for mitigating conductivity degradation since it shows least reduction in conductance with confinement and responds most favorably to compressive strain.