Optical Phenomena in Semiconductor Structures of Reduced Dimensions

Download or read book Optical Phenomena in Semiconductor Structures of Reduced Dimensions written by D.J. Lockwood and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Remarkable advances in semiconductor growth and processing technologies continue to have a profound impact on condensed-matter physics and to stimulate the invention of novel optoelectronic effects. Intensive research on the behaviors of free carriers has been carried out in the two-dimensional systems of semiconductor heterostructures and in the one and zero-dimensional systems of nanostructures created by the state-of-the-art fabrication methods. These studies have uncovered unexpected quantum mechanical correlations that arise because of the combined effects of strong electron-electron interactions and wave function confinement associated with reduced dimensionality. The investigations of these phenomena are currently at the frontiers of condensed-matter physics. They include areas like the fractional quantum Hall effect, the dynamics of electrons on an ultra short (femtosecond) time scale, electron behavior in quantum wires and dots, and studies of electron tunneling phenomena in ultra small semiconductor structures. Optical techniques have made important contributions to these fields in recent years, but there has been no coherent review of this work until now. The book provides an overview of these recent developments that will be of interest to semiconductor materials scientists in university, government and industrial laboratories.