Nanophysics

Aim

The aim of this course is to give an introduction to the semiconductor physics at the nanometer scale. The participants in the course obtain basic understanding of the principles, fabrication and characterization methods, and application aspects of low-dimensional semiconductor structures. After the course the students should be able to:

• define the fundamental physical principles, which govern properties of the semiconductor materials and predict the effects of reduced dimensionality on optical, electronic and transport-related properties in quantum structures
• describe and evaluate the different fabrication methods of semiconductor nanostructures - quantum wells, quantum wires and quantum dots
• apply imaging and optical characterization techniques, perform analysis of the obtained information and write a lab report in English
• explain the operation principles of nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices and identify the their area of applications.

Content

A. Introduction to the semiconductor physics and nanostructures – scaling laws at nanoscale; quantum nature of nanoworld; semiconductor band structure and effective masses; phonons, free charge cariers and scattering processes; quantized electronic levels in quantum wells, quantum wires and quatum dots.

B. Fabrication and characterization of semiconductor nanostructures - epitaxial techniques for growth of quantum wells, quantum wires and quantum dots; imaging techniques for structural analysis of semiconductor nanostructures; spectroscopic methods for characterization of quantized electronic levels; local probe spectroscopy.

C. Properties and application of semiconductor nanostructures - optical properties of quantum wells, quantum wires and quantum dots - absorption, emission, excitons, carrier relaxation and recombination; quandum electon transport in semiconductor heterostructures (two-dimensional electron gas) and in quantum wires (ballistic transport); nanophotonic devices - light-emission diodes, laser diodes, photodetectors and solar cells; nanoelectronic devices - high-mobility field-effect transistors, resonant tunneling diodes, single-electron transistors.