Quantum-well principle

The uncertainty principle, according to which either the position of a confined microscopic particle or its momentum, but not both, can be precisely measured, requires an increase in the carrier energy. In quantum wells having abmpt barriers (square wells) the carrier energy increases in inverse proportion to its effective mass (the mass of a carrier in a semiconductor is not the same as that of the free carrier) and the square of the well width. The confined carriers are allowed only a few discrete energy levels (confined states), each described by a quantum number, as is illustrated in Eigure 5. Stimulated emission is allowed to occur only as transitions between the confined electron and hole states described by the same quantum number. 

Group I relies, as said before, on the reductionistic ideal that everything, in the field of chemistry, is amenable to the first principles and that a correct applications of the principles, accompanied by the necessary computational effort, will give the answer one is searching. It is a rigourous approach, based on quantum mechanical principles, in which the elements of the computation have no cognitive status, unless when employed to get numerical values of physical observables or of other quantities having a well defined status in the theory. 

Nano-structures comments on an example of extreme microstructure In a chapter entitled Materials in Extreme States , Cahn (2001) dedicated several comments to the extreme microstructures and summed up principles and technology of nano-structured materials. Historical remarks were cited starting from the early recognition that working at the nano-scale is truly different from traditional material science. The chemical behaviour and electronic structure change when dimensions are comparable to the length scale of electronic wave functions. Quantum effects do become important at this scale, as predicted by Lifshitz and Kosevich (1953). As for their nomenclature, notice that a piece of semiconductor which is very small in one, two- or three-dimensions, that is a confined structure, is called a quantum well, a quantum wire or a quantum dot, respectively. 

The methodology used to answer these questions can be classified as either semi-empirical or based on first principles. The confined structure is assumed to be two-dimensional (2D = quantum well), one-dimensional (lD = quantum wire) or zero-dimensional (0D = quantum dot). 

Theoretical calculations of the electronic structure and optical properties of H-passivated Si quantum wires have been reported by a number of research groups (see, for example, Ref. 116 and references therein). First principles calculations show the same band nesting phenomenon and near-flat dispersion along the T-Z symmetry (wire) direction, as described above for Si quantum wells, and the occurrence of direct gaps.116,117... 

An approach with indirect injection of electron-hole excitations into nanocrystals by the above described noncontact nonradiative Forster-like energy transfer from a proximal quantum well that can in principle be pumped either electrically or optically, can solve the problem of pumping of nanocrystals. The result obtained by the Klimov group indicate that this energy transfer is fast enough to compete with electron-hole recombination in the quantum well, and results in... 

In terms of the quantum-well picture, a small particle of, e.g., an alkali metal, can be regarded in many respects as a giant atom (or molecule). The electrons are confined by the outer surface of the particle, which presents an approximately spherical potential, similar therefore to the spherically symmetric Coulombic potential in the atom arising from the electron-nucleus electrostatic interaction. Thus, the building-up principle of electrons in such a cluster is quite similar to that underlying the periodic system of the elements, with the characteristic shell-structure for the electrons. Indeed, large differences in reactivity have been observed for clusters with filled or unfilled electron shells An attractive feature of clusters in this respect is, evidently, that the number of electrons (atoms) per cluster can surpass by orders of magnitude the number of elements in the periodic system. 

Figure 4.19 Principle of multiple quantum-well structure of a quantum cascade laser (QCL). Top right standard QCL device Alpes Lasers)-, bottom right QCL integrated into common laser unit, including drive electronics and TE cooling (Cascade Technologies)...

In principle, the low-dimensional semiconductors are divided into the two-dimensional quantum wells and superlattices, the one-dimensional quantum wires, and the zero-dimensional quantum dots. In the following, we list the most common fabrication methods for each of these systems. 

In classical mechanics, the state of the system may be completely specified by the set of Cartesian particle coordinates r. and velocities dr./dt at any given time. These evolve according to Newton s equations of motion. In principle, one can write down equations involving the state variables and forces acting on the particles which can be solved to give the location and velocity of each particle at any later (or earlier) time t, provided one knows the precise state of the classical system at time t. In quantum mechanics, the state of the system at time t is instead described by a well behaved mathematical fiinction of the particle coordinates q- rather than a simple list of positions and velocities. 

For those who are familiar with the statistical mechanical interpretation of entropy, which asserts that at 0 K substances are nonnally restricted to a single quantum state, and hence have zero entropy, it should be pointed out that the conventional thennodynamic zero of entropy is not quite that, since most elements and compounds are mixtures of isotopic species that in principle should separate at 0 K, but of course do not. The thennodynamic entropies reported in tables ignore the entropy of isotopic mixing, and m some cases ignore other complications as well, e.g. ortho- and para-hydrogen. 

Of the variety of quantum effects which are present at low temperatures we focus here mainly on delocalization effects due to the position-momentum uncertainty principle. Compared to purely classical systems, the quantum delocalization introduces fluctuations in addition to the thermal fluctuations. This may result in a decrease of phase transition temperatures as compared to a purely classical system under otherwise unchanged conditions. The ground state order may decrease as well. From the experimental point of view it is rather difficult to extract the amount of quantumness of the system. The delocahzation can become so pronounced that certain phases are stable in contrast to the case in classical systems. We analyze these effects in Sec. V, in particular the phase transitions in adsorbed N2, H2 and D2 layers. 

The relationships between thermodynamic entropy and Shannon s information-theoretic entropy and between physics and computation have been explored and hotly debated ever since. It is now well known, for example, that computers can, in principle, provide an arbitrary amount of reliable computation per kT of dissipated energy ([benu73], [fredkin82] see also the discussion in section 6.4). Whether a dissipationless computer can be built in practice, remains an open problem. We must also remember that computers are themselves physical (and therefore, ultimately, quantum) devices, so that any exploration of the limitations of computation will be inextricably linked with the fundamental limitations imposed by the laws of physics. 

Of course, most of what I have said so far is well known. Nevertheless, I hope to have given these issues a new perspective by adopting an almost perversely rigorous approach in demanding that every aspect of electronic configurations should be strictly deducible from quantum mechanics. Although I am not in a position to propose a better explanation, I do not think that we should be complacent about what the present explanation achieves. As I have tried to argue, in terms of deduction from theoretical principles, the present semi-empirical explanation is not fully adequate. 

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