Preface Acknowledgements Notation Part I. Overview and Background Topics: 1. Introduction 2. Overview 3. Theoretical background 4. Periodic solids and electron bands 5. Uniform electron gas and simple metals Part II. Density Functional Theory: 6. Density functional theory: foundations 7. The Kohn-Sham ansatz 8. Functionals for exchange and correlation 9. Solving the Kohn-Sham equations Part III. Important Preliminaries on Atoms: 10. Electronic structure of atoms 11. Pseudopotentials Part IV. Determination of Electronic Structure, The Three Basic Methods: 12. Plane waves and grids: basics 13. Plane waves and grids: full calculations 14. Localized orbitals: tight binding 15. Localized orbitals: full calculations 16. Augmented functions: APW, KKR, MTO 17. Augmented functions: linear methods Part V. Predicting Properties of Matter from Electronic Structure - Recent Developments: 18. Quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) 19. Response functions: photons, magnons ... 20. Excitation spectra and optical properties 21. Wannier functions 22. Polarization, localization and Berry's phases 23. Locality and linear scaling O (N) methods 24. Where to find more Appendixes References Index.

Electronic Structure: Basic Theory and Practical Methods

The properties of quasi-two-dimensional semiconductor quantum dots are reviewed. Experimental techniques for measuring the electronic shell structure and the effect of magnetic fields are briefly described. The electronic structure is analyzed in terms of simple single-particle models, density-functional theory, and "exact" diagonalization methods. The spontaneous magnetization due to Hund's rule, spin-density wave states, and electron localization are addressed. As a function of the magnetic field, the electronic structure goes through several phases with qualitatively different properties. The formation of the so-called maximum-density droplet and its edge reconstruction is discussed, and the regime of strong magnetic fields in finite dot is examined. In addition, quasi-one-dimensional rings, deformed dots, and dot molecules are considered. (Less)

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Electronic structure of quantum dots

The ongoing miniaturization of solid state devices often leads to the question: “How small can we make resistors, transistors, etc., without changing the way they work?” The question can be asked a different way, however: “How small do we have to make devices in order to get fundamentally new properties?” By “new properties” we particularly mean those that arise from quantum mechanics or the quantization of charge in units of eeffects that are only important in small systems such as atoms. “What kind of small electronic devices do we have in mind?” Any sort of clustering of atoms that can be connected to source and drain contacts and whose properties can be regulated with a gate electrode. Practically, the clustering of atoms may be a molecule, a small grain of metallic atoms, or an electronic device that is made with modern chip fabrication techniques. It turns out that such seemingly different structures have quite similar transport properties and that one can explain their physics within one relatively simple framework. In this paper we investigate the physics of electron transport through such small systems.

Electron Transport in Quantum Dots

The study of single-electron phenomena associated with tunnelling in semiconductor nanostructures has emerged in recent years as a major forefront of condensed matter physics, whose implications range from fundamental physics to electronic device applications. This paper presents a tutorial review of the subject, with emphasis on the role of single-electron charging in such semiconductor `quantum dots'. The main purpose is to describe the various phenomena observed in these experiments and to present the theoretical understanding of these phenomena in an introductory fashion. The paper attempts to explain the underlying physics at the intuitive level and tries to draw, as much as possible, a unifying perspective on a relatively large body of knowledge acquired within a short time by the conjunction of many individual contributions.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0268-1242/11/3/003/pdf

Single-electron phenomena in semiconductors

One‐dimensional electron‐optical‐phonon interaction Hamiltonians in a rectangular quantum wire consisting of diatomic polar semiconductors are derived under the macroscopic dielectric continuum model. The scattering rates calculated in a GaAs square quantum wire show that when the quantum wire is free‐standing in vacuum, the interaction by the surface‐optical phonon modes is very strong and may dominate over other scattering processes, especially with dimensions of about 100 A or less. When the wire is embedded in a polar semiconductor (AlAs to be specific), the scattering rates by the surface‐optical phonon modes become generally smaller, but yet comparable to those by the confined longitudinal‐optical modes as the wire dimension shrinks. A considerable decrease in the total scattering rate for optical phonons as a result of simple reduction in dimensionality is not observed in this study.

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Electron‐optical‐phonon scattering rates in a rectangular semiconductor quantum wire

Self-consistent analysis of single-electron charging effects in quantum-dot nanostructures.

When the spacing between subbands in a quantum wire is equal to the optic phonon energy a situation occurs under longitudinal field conditions where the upper subband population is enhanced with respect to the lower subband. We focus our investigation on the case where a third, intermediate subband is located slightly below the upper subband. We use a Monte Carlo simulation and obtain a population inversion between the upper and intermediate subbands. Intersubband optical transitions with the possibility of far‐infrared stimulated emission seem to be significant.

Intersubband population inversion in quantum wire structures

The authors discuss a wide variety of new phenomena caused by high levels of confinement in mesoscopic systems, which affects the dynamics and statistical distribution of the carriers. A simulation of the low-temperature transport in quantum wires shows the onset of velocity oscillations arising from optical phonon emission in moderate electric fields. At high temperatures, transport nonlinearities are manifested by high carrier mobility and substantial carrier cooling. Pronounced resonances between the optical-phonon energy and the subband separation give rise to population inversion between adjacent off-resonance subbands induced by 'phonon pumping'. Under high-field conditions carriers rapidly escape from quantum wires through intervalley scattering and real space transfer.

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Hot-carrier dynamics in mesoscopic structures

Etude des effets de diffusion inelastique des phonons optiques et acoustiques dans des systemes quasi unidimensionnels ayant jusqu'a 20 sous-bandes. Les simulations Monte Carlo realisees sur des structures resonnantes du premier, second et troisieme ordre, entre 150 et 300 K, revelent l'apparition de proprietes de transport dissipatif. Des non-linearites dans la distribution electronique induisent des fluctuations de vitesse analogues a un effet magnetophonon longitudinal

D. Jovanovic

Papers

Self-consistent analysis of single-electron charging effects in quantum-dot nanostructures.

Intersubband population inversion in quantum wire structures

Hot-carrier dynamics in mesoscopic structures

Intersubband resonant effects of dissipative transport in quantum wires

Electron-phonon interaction and velocity oscillations in quantum wire structures