Nanoelectronics
Graduate course (MSc and PhD) – Fall 2026
Course information
Level: MSc and PhD, Electronics Engineering
Semester: Fall 2026 (first semester 1405–1406), Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Format: 16 weekly sessions; every second week the session is a hands-on lab (sessions C1 to C8) with a Python notebook, problem solving and short student presentations
Lecturer: Mohammad Razaghi
Textbook
S. Datta, Lessons from Nanoelectronics: A. Basic Concepts and B. Quantum Transport, World Scientific, 2nd Edition, 2017.
Part A (basic concepts) is covered in the first 11 weeks and Part B (quantum transport and the NEGF method) in weeks 12 to 16. The course follows Datta's “bottom-up” view: conduction is understood from the energy levels and contacts, not from the electric field alone.
Course materials
Every week has four matching resources, all of which run in an ordinary web browser (no installation, no internet connection needed once downloaded):
Slides – animated lecture slides with embedded simulators. Use the arrow keys; they also work on a tablet or phone.
Study toolkit – key ideas, equation sheet, glossary, calculators, a 10-question self-test, worked problems and a self-check list.
Interactive simulators – small experiments to explore before reading the equations. Start each one by predicting what will happen.
Python notebook – runs in Google Colab or Jupyter. Download the file, then upload it to Google Colab (File, Upload notebook).
| Week | Topic | Slides and study toolkit | Interactive simulators | Python notebook |
| 1 | Overview: why Ohm's law fails for short conductors; the elastic resistor | Slides Study toolkit | Where is the heat? Where is the resistance? Scattering in a 3D nanowire | Notebook |
| 2 | What makes electrons flow? Density of states, Fermi functions and the energy window (session C1) | Slides Study toolkit | Two Fermi functions Fill the states Linear response | Notebook |
| 3 | The elastic resistor: conductance function and where the heat is released | Slides Study toolkit | Degenerate and non-degenerate conductors Flux = population / transit time | Notebook |
| 4 | From ballistic to diffusive transport: the new Ohm's law and number of modes (session C2) | Slides Study toolkit | Conductance from fluctuation Transit-time race | Notebook |
| 5 | Band model: states in k-space, number of modes, who conducts | Slides Study toolkit | Who conducts? Counting states in k-space Number of modes M(E) | Notebook |
| 6 | The nanotransistor: gate control, saturation and quantum capacitance (session C3) | Slides Study toolkit | Quantum capacitance, 60 mV/decade Nanotransistor explorer | Notebook |
| 7 | Two electrochemical potentials and the Boltzmann equation | Slides Study toolkit | Boltzmann equation as particles Two potentials mu+ and mu- | Notebook |
| 8 | Quasi-Fermi levels, Landauer formulas, voltage probes and the Hall effect (session C4) | Slides Study toolkit | Hall effect and edge states Single defect and Landauer formulas | Notebook |
| 9 | Smart contacts: p-n junction, solar cell and spin valve | Slides Study toolkit | p-n junction and solar cell Spin valve and spin potentials | Notebook |
| 10 | Thermoelectric effects and phonon transport (session C5) | Slides Study toolkit | Thermoelectric window, Seebeck, ZT Phonon transport and ZT | Notebook |
| 11 | The second law and the fuel value of information: entropy, Fock space, the info-battery | Slides Study toolkit | Reservoir that counts states (Fock space) Info-battery and Landauer erasure | Notebook |
| 12 | From the Schrödinger equation to a matrix: tight-binding chains, 2D lattices and graphene (session C6) | Slides Study toolkit | Tight-binding chain Square lattice and graphene | Notebook |
| 13 | The NEGF method: contacts for the Schrödinger equation | Slides Study toolkit | One level, two contacts NEGF on a small molecule | Notebook |
| 14 | Quantum wires and quantum resistors in series: modes and the quantum of conductance (session C7) | Slides Study toolkit | Quantum of conductance, modes of a 2D wire Two scatterers in series | Notebook |
| 15 | Beyond elastic, non-interacting transport: inelastic scattering and Coulomb blockade | Slides Study toolkit | Emission is easier than absorption Coulomb blockade in Fock space | Notebook |
| 16 | Spin and p-bits: rotating an electron, from quantum to classical, probabilistic spin logic (session C8) | Slides Study toolkit | Bloch sphere, probe and spin precession Probabilistic AND gate from p-bits | Notebook |
Assessment
Weekly self-tests in the study toolkits and the Python notebooks of the lab sessions
Midterm exam (week 8)
Final project: reproduce a figure from the textbook with code and a simulator