Electronic Properties Of Multilayers And Low Dimensional Semiconductor Structures

This Advanced Study Institute on the Electronic Properties of Multilayers and Low Dimensional Semiconductor Structures focussed on several of the most active areas in modern semiconductor physics. These included resonant tunnelling and superlattice phenomena and the topics of ballistic transport, quantised conductance and anomalous magnetoresistance effects in laterally gated two-dimensional electron systems. Although the main emphasis was on fundamental physics, a series of supporting lectures described the underlying technology (Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Metallo-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition, Electron Beam Lithography and other advanced processing technologies). Actual and potential applications of low dimensional structures in optoelectronic and high frequency devices were also discussed. The ASI took the form of a series of lectures of about fifty minutes' duration which were given by senior researchers from a wide range of countries. Most of the lectures are recorded in these Proceedings. The younger members of the Institute made the predominant contribution to the discussion sessions following each lecture and, in addition, provided most of the fifty-five papers that were presented in two lively poster sessions. The ASl emphasised the impressive way in which this research field has developed through the fruitful interaction of theory, experiment and semiconductor device technology. Many of the talks demonstrated both the effectiveness and limitations of semiclassical concepts in describing the quantum phenomena exhibited by electrons in low dimensional structures.

Low-Dimensional Semiconductor Structures offers a seamless, atoms-to-devices introduction to the latest quantum heterostructures. It covers their fabrication; electronic, optical, and transport properties; role in exploring new physical phenomena; and utilization in devices. The authors describe the epitaxial growth of semiconductors and the physical behavior of electrons and phonons in low-dimensional structures. They then go on to discuss nonlinear optics in quantum heterostructures. The final chapters deal with semiconductor lasers, mesoscopic devices, and high-speed heterostructure devices. The book contains many exercises and comprehensive references.

Low-dimensional semiconductor quantum structures are a major, high-technological development that has a considerable industrial potential. The field is developing extremely rapidly and the present book represents a timely guide to the latest developments in device technology, fundamental properties, and some remarkable applications. The content is largely tutorial, and the book could be used as a textbook. The book deals with the physics, fabrication, characteristics and performance of devices based on low-dimensional semiconductor structures. It opens with fabrication procedures. The fundamentals of quantum structures and electro-optical devices are dealt with extensively. Nonlinear optical devices are discussed from the point of view of physics and applications of exciton saturation in MQW structures. Waveguide-based devices are also described in terms of linear and nonlinear coupling. The basics of pseudomorphic HEMT technology, device physics and materials layer design are presented. Each aspect is reviewed from the elementary basics up to the latest developments. Audience: Undergraduates in electrical engineering, graduates in physics and engineering schools. Useful for active scientists and engineers wishing to update their knowledge and understanding of recent developments.

Presenting the latest advances in artificial structures, this volume discusses in-depth the structure and electron transport mechanisms of quantum wells, superlattices, quantum wires, and quantum dots. It will serve as an invaluable reference and review for researchers and graduate students in solid-state physics, materials science, and electrical and electronic engineering.

A recent major development in high technology, and one which bears considerable industrial potential, is the advent of low-dimensional semiconductor quantum structures. The research and development activity in this field is moving fast and it is thus important to afford scientists and engineers the opportunity to get updated by the best experts in the field. The present book draws together the latest developments in the fabrication technology of quantum structures, as well as a competent and extensive review of their fundamental properties and some remarkable applications. The book is based on a set of lectures that introduce different aspects of the basic knowledge available, it has a tutorial content and could be used as a textbook. Each aspect is reviewed, from elementary concepts up to the latest developments. Audience: Undergraduates and graduates in electrical engineering and physics schools. Also for active scientists and engineers, updating their knowledge and understanding of the frontiers of the technology.

This text is a first attempt to pull together the whole of semiconductor science and technology since 1970 in so far as semiconductor multilayers are concerned. Material, technology, physics and device issues are described with approximately equal emphasis, and form a single coherant point of view. The subject matter is the concern of over half of today's active semiconductor scientists and technologists, the remainder working on bulk semiconductors and devices. It is now routine to design and the prepare semiconductor multilayers at a time, with independent control over the dropping and composition in each layer. In turn these multilayers can be patterned with features that as a small as a few atomic layers in lateral extent. The resulting structures open up many new ares of exciting solid state and quantum physics. They have also led to whole new generations of electronic and optoelectronic devices whose superior performance relates back to the multilayer structures. The principles established in the field have several decades to go, advancing towards the ultimate of materials engineering, the design and preparation of solids atom by atom. The book should appeal equally to physicists, electronic engineers and materials scientists.

The composition of modern semiconductor heterostructures can be controlled precisely on the atomic scale to create low-dimensional systems. These systems have revolutionised semiconductor physics, and their impact on technology, particularly for semiconductor lasers and ultrafast transistors, is widespread and burgeoning. This book provides an introduction to the general principles that underlie low-dimensional semiconductors. As far as possible, simple physical explanations are used, with reference to examples from actual devices. The author shows how, beginning with fundamental results from quantum mechanics and solid-state physics, a formalism can be developed that describes the properties of low-dimensional semiconductor systems. Among numerous examples, two key systems are studied in detail: the two-dimensional electron gas, employed in field-effect transistors, and the quantum well, whose optical properties find application in lasers and other opto-electronic devices. The book includes many exercises and will be invaluable to undergraduate and first-year graduate physics or electrical engineering students taking courses in low-dimensional systems or heterostructure device physics.

The operation of semiconductor devices depends upon the use of electrical potential barriers (such as gate depletion) in controlling the carrier densities (electrons and holes) and their transport. Although a successful device design is quite complicated and involves many aspects, the device engineering is mostly to devise a "best" device design by defIning optimal device structures and manipulating impurity profIles to obtain optimal control of the carrier flow through the device. This becomes increasingly diffIcult as the device scale becomes smaller and smaller. Since the introduction of integrated circuits, the number of individual transistors on a single chip has doubled approximately every three years. As the number of devices has grown, the critical dimension of the smallest feature, such as a gate length (which is related to the transport length defIning the channel), has consequently declined. The reduction of this design rule proceeds approximately by a factor of 1. 4 each generation, which means we will be using 0. 1-0. 15 ). lm rules for the 4 Gb chips a decade from now. If we continue this extrapolation, current technology will require 30 nm design rules, and a cell 3 2 size