Advanced Physics Of Electron Transport In Semiconductors And Nanostructures

This textbook is aimed at second-year graduate students in Physics, Electrical Engineering, or Materials Science. It presents a rigorous introduction to electronic transport in solids, especially at the nanometer scale.Understanding electronic transport in solids requires some basic knowledge of Hamiltonian Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Condensed Matter Theory, and Statistical Mechanics. Hence, this book discusses those sub-topics which are required to deal with electronic transport in a single, self-contained course. This will be useful for students who intend to work in academia or the nano/ micro-electronics industry.Further topics covered include: the theory of energy bands in crystals, of second quantization and elementary excitations in solids, of the dielectric properties of semiconductors with an emphasis on dielectric screening and coupled interfacial modes, of electron scattering with phonons, plasmons, electrons and photons, of the derivation of transport equations in semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures somewhat at the quantum level, but mainly at the semi-classical level. The text presents examples relevant to current research, thus not only about Si, but also about III-V compound semiconductors, nanowires, graphene and graphene nanoribbons. In particular, the text gives major emphasis to plane-wave methods applied to the electronic structure of solids, both DFT and empirical pseudopotentials, always paying attention to their effects on electronic transport and its numerical treatment. The core of the text is electronic transport, with ample discussions of the transport equations derived both in the quantum picture (the Liouville-von Neumann equation) and semi-classically (the Boltzmann transport equation, BTE). An advanced chapter, Chapter 18, is strictly related to the ‘tricky’ transition from the time-reversible Liouville-von Neumann equation to the time-irreversible Green’s functions, to the density-matrix formalism and, classically, to the Boltzmann transport equation. Finally, several methods for solving the BTE are also reviewed, including the method of moments, iterative methods, direct matrix inversion, Cellular Automata and Monte Carlo. Four appendices complete the text.

This textbook is aimed at second-year graduate students in Physics, Electrical Engineering or Materials Science. It presents a rigorous introduction to electronic transport in solids, especially at the nanometer scale. Understanding electronic transport in solids requires some basic knowledge of Hamiltonian Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Condensed Matter Theory, and Statistical Mechanics. Hence this book discusses those sub-topics of these four disciplines which are required to deal with electronic transport in a single, self-contained course. This will be useful for students who intend to work in academia or the nano/micro-electronics industry. Further topics covered include: the theory of energy bands in crystals, of second quantization and elementary excitations in solids, of the dielectric properties of semiconductors with an emphasis on dielectric screening and coupled interfacial modes, on electron scattering with phonons, plasmons, electrons and photons, on the derivation of transport equations in semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures also at the quantum level. but mainly at the semi-classical level. The text presents examples relevant to current research, thus not only about Si, but also III-V compound semiconductors, nanowires, graphene and graphene nanoribbons. In particular, the text gives major emphasis to plane-wave methods regarding the electronic structure of solids, both DFT and empirical pseudopotentials, always paying attention to their effects on electronic transport and its numerical treatment. The core of the text is electronic transport, with ample discussions on the transport equations derived both in the quantum picture (the Liouville-von Neumann equation) and semi-classically (the Boltzmann transport equation, BTE). Several methods for solving the BTE are also reviewed, including the method of moments, iterative methods, direct matrix inversion, Cellular Automata and Monte Carlo. The first appendix, on the principles of special relativity, is required to understand the ‘minimal’ electromagnetic coupling between electrons and photons and also to introduce the relativistic wave equation for massless spin-1/2 particles. This is of current interest since it is used to describe approximately the electron dispersion in graphene. The second appendix, on alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics, is strictly related to the ‘tricky’ transition from the time-reversible Liouville-von Neumann equation to the time-irreversible Green’s functions, to the density-matrix formalism and, classically, to the Boltzmann transport equation.

Opening with a brief historical account of electron transport from Ohm's law through transport in semiconductor nanostructures, this book discusses topics related to electronic quantum transport. The book is written for graduate students and researchers in the field of mesoscopic semiconductors or in semiconductor nanostructures. Highlights include review of the cryogenic scanning probe techniques applied to semiconductor nanostructures.

This introduction to the physics of semiconductor nanostructures and their transport properties emphasizes five fundamental transport phenomena: quantized conductance, tunnelling transport, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the quantum Hall effect and the Coulomb blockade effect.

This book is a comprehensive text on the physics of semiconductors and nanostructures for a large spectrum of students at the final undergraduate level studying physics, material science and electronics engineering. It offers introductory and advanced courses on solid state and semiconductor physics on one hand and the physics of low dimensional semiconductor structures on the other in a single text book. Key Features Presents basic concepts of quantum theory, solid state physics, semiconductors, and quantum nanostructures such as quantum well, quantum wire, quantum dot and superlattice In depth description of semiconductor heterojunctions, lattice strain and modulation doping technique Covers transport in nanostructures under an electric and magnetic field with the topics: quantized conductance, Coulomb blockade, and integer and fractional quantum Hall effect Presents the optical processes in nanostructures under a magnetic field Includes illustrative problems with hints for solutions in each chapter Physics of Semiconductors and Nanostructures will be helpful to students initiating PhD work in the field of semiconductor nanostructures and devices. It follows a unique tutorial approach meeting the requirements of students who find learning the concepts difficult and want to study from a physical perspective.

Advances in semiconductor technology have made possible the fabrication of structures whose dimensions are much smaller than the mean free path of an electron. This book gives a thorough account of the theory of electronic transport in such mesoscopic systems. After an initial chapter covering fundamental concepts, the transmission function formalism is presented, and used to describe three key topics in mesoscopic physics: the quantum Hall effect; localisation; and double-barrier tunnelling. Other sections include a discussion of optical analogies to mesoscopic phenomena, and the book concludes with a description of the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and its relation to the transmission formalism. Complete with problems and solutions, the book will be of great interest to graduate students of mesoscopic physics and nanoelectronic device engineering, as well as to established researchers in these fields.

This book originated out of a desire to provide students with an instrument which might lead them from knowledge of elementary classical and quantum physics to moderntheoreticaltechniques for the analysisof electrontransport in semiconductors. The book is basically a textbook for students of physics, material science, and electronics. Rather than a monograph on detailed advanced research in a speci?c area, it intends to introduce the reader to the fascinating ?eld of electron dynamics in semiconductors, a ?eld that, through its applications to electronics, greatly contributed to the transformationof all our lives in the second half of the twentieth century, and continues to provide surprises and new challenges. The ?eld is so extensive that it has been necessary to leave aside many subjects, while others could be dealt with only in terms of their basic principles. The book is divided into ?ve major parts. Part I moves from a survey of the fundamentals of classical and quantum physics to a brief review of basic semiconductor physics. Its purpose is to establish a common platform of language and symbols, and to make the entire treatment, as far as pos- ble, self-contained. Parts II and III, respectively, develop transport theory in bulk semiconductors in semiclassical and quantum frames. Part IV is devoted to semiconductor structures, including devices and mesoscopic coherent s- tems. Finally, Part V develops the basic theoretical tools of transport theory within the modern nonequilibrium Green-function formulation, starting from an introduction to second-quantization formalism.

Physics of Nanostructured Solid State Devices introduces readers to theories and concepts such as semi-classical and quantum mechanical descriptions of electron transport, methods for calculations of band structures in solids with applications in calculation of optical constants, and other advanced concepts. The information presented here will equip readers with the necessary tools to carry out cutting edge research in modern solid state nanodevices.