Quantum Dots:

fluorescent semiconductor
nanocrystals
Particle in a box

Man-made quantum box
Macroscopic systems : Bulk Materials
Microscopic systems : Elementary Particles,
Nuclei, Atoms & Molecules
Mesoscopic systems : ~ 1-100 nm (atleast in 1D)


One of the requirements for the nanosystems:
Systems size System is called

Few nm in 1D Quantum Well
Few nm in 2D Quantum Wire
Few nm in all 3D Quantum Dot

What are nanosystems?
Consider a layered structure with z-direction normal to layers.
Green and Blue layers represent different materials.
If the thickness of any one type of layer or both the types is of
the order of a few nm, it is a quantum well structure.
Any one layer a few nm along z and also along x or y : QWR
A few nm along each of x-, y-, and z- directions : QD
In physics, the Thermal de Broglie wavelength is defined for a free ideal gas of
massive particles in equilibrium as:

Where h is Planck's constant , m is the mass of a gas particle , k is Boltzmann's
constant , T is the Temperature of the gas

The thermal de Broglie wavelength is roughly the average de Broglie wavelength of
the gas particles in an ideal gas at the specified temperature.

We can take the average interparticle spacing in the gas to be approximately
(V/N)
1/3
where V is the volume and N is the number of particles.

When the thermal de Broglie wavelength is much smaller than the interparticle
distance, the gas can be considered to be a classical or Maxwell-Boltzmann gas.

On the other hand, when the thermal de Broglie wavelength is on the order of, or
larger than the interparticle distance, quantum effects will dominate and the gas
must be treated as a Fermi gas or a Bose gas, depending on the nature of the gas
particles.

The critical temperature is the transition point between these two regimes, and at
this critical temperature, the thermal wavelength will be approximately equal to the
interparticle distance.
2 / 1
/
2
2
|
|
.
|

\
|
= A T k m
B
t
Consider particles confined in a 1D box of length L.

The thermal de Broglie wavelength of the particle is
2 / 1
/
2
2
|
|
.
|

\
|
= A T k m
B
t
Consider the case when
A
> L.
Now the particles cannot be treated classically; purely
quantum-mechanical treatment becomes necessary.
This is the so-called size-quantization regime.
For size-quantization, L turns out to be in the mesoscopic
range provided the temperature is not too low.
Any system of this size is a nanosystem.
.
Consider a particle confined in a 1D box of length L.

eV
eV
eV
L m
E E E
L
n
m
n
E
1 ~
10 ~
10 ~
2
3
2
2
20
2
2
2
2
1 2
=
=
=
= = A
=

|
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
t
t

For a free electron and L = 1 m

For a free electron and L = 1 nm
For a typical semiconductor with L = 1nm

Energy-levels separation is of the same order as in
atoms;

Quantum Dots are also called Artificial Atoms.

Quantum Dots
The color of light emitted by a
semiconductor material is determined
by the width of the energy gap
separating the conduction and valence
energy bands.
In bulk semiconductors, this gap width is
fixed by the identity (i.e. composition) of the
material.
For example, the band gap energy of bulk
CdSe is 1.77 eV at 300 K.
Recall that a photon obeys
for the relationship between the energy gap
and the frequency or wavelength
If you want a different wavelength of light to be
emitted, you need to find a different material.
However, the situation changes in the case of
nanoscale semiconductor particles with sizes
smaller than 10 nm.
This size range corresponds to the regime of
quantum confinement, for which the spatial
extent of the electronic wavefunction is
comparable with the dot size.
v / hc h E = =
As a result of these geometrical constraints,
electrons respond to changes in particle size
by adjusting their energy. This phenomenon
is called the quantum size effect.
The quantum size effect can be approximately
described by the particle in a box model.
How good is this approximation? Good see
Weber, Phys. Rev. B, 66 041305 (2002).
For a spherical quantum dot with radius R,
this model predicts a size-dependent
contribution to the energy gap proportional to
1/R
2
.

Hence the gap increases as the quantum
dot size decreases.

The Infinite Square Well
- a particle in the potential is completely free, except at the two
ends where an infinite force prevents it from escaping
Outside the well:
( )
0 x = - the probability of finding the particle =0
Inside the well:
( )
( )
2
2
2
2
d x
E x
m dx

=
( )
( )
2
2
2
d x
k x
dx

=
2mE
k - the harmonic oscillator equation
( )
sin cos x A kx B kx = +
- constants A and B are fixed by boundary conditions
( ) ( )
0 0 L = = Continuity of the wave function: ( )
0 sin 0 cos 0 0 A k B k B = + = =
( )
sin x A kx =
General solution:
Thus, ( )
sin 0 L A kL = = 0, , 2 ,... kL t t =
, 1, 2,...
n
n
k n
L
t
= =
n quantum number (1D motion is
characterized by a single q.n., for 2D motion
we need two quantum numbers, etc.)
Wavefunctions and Energy Quantization
, 1, 2,...
n
n
k n
L
t
= =
( )
2
sin
n
x
x n
L L
t
| |
=
|
\ .
- the pre-factor from normalization condition
2 2
0
sin 1
L
x
A n dx
L
t
| |
=
|
\ .
}
Allowed energies of a bound system are quantized:
The ground state n=1:
2mE n
k
L
t
=
2 2 2 2 2
2 2
2 2
2 2 8
n
n
k h
E n n
m mL mL
t
= = =
2
1
2
8
h
E
mL
=
Excited states n>1:
2
1 n
E n E =
In the process of measurement, the particle wavefunction
must collapse to one of the energy wavefunctions, and E
n
are
the only possible results of such a measurement.
Signatures of the Quantum Behavior
Energy quantization - only discrete energy levels are allowed in a steady state.
Zero-point energy - the lowest possible energy level of the particle, called the zero-point
energy, is nonzero.
Spatial nodes - In contrast to classical mechanics, where the probability of finding the
particle is uniform throughout the well, the probability distribution for a quantum particle in
a stationary bound state is NOT uniform: there are nodes where the probability is ZERO!
-due to interference effects caused by the wave-like character of quantum particles
(compare with the standing waves on a string of length L)
In general, (n-1) nodes for a wavefunction of the energy level n.
(For a potential with infinite walls, there are two additional zeros at the wall location.)
Some Basic Physics
Density of states (DoS)


e.g. in 3D:
Structure Degree of
Confinement
Bulk Material 0D
Quantum Well 1D 1
Quantum Wire 2D
Quantum Dot 3D o(E)
dE
dN
E
E 1/
dE
dk
dk
dN
dE
dN
DoS = =
V
k
k N
3
3
) 2 (
3 4
state per vol
vol space k
) (
t
t
=
=