Mesoscopic Physics and Nanotechnologies

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TRENDS IN NANOELECTRONICS AND OPTOELECTRONICS

evolution

of microelectronic devices is influenced by factors such as growing demands in memory capacity of integrated circuits, high transmission data speed, optical communications, etc
requires

electronic devices with faster speed operation and smaller size, as is the case of silicon integrated circuits, in particular dynamic random access memories

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In

the near future, and due to the growing demands of calculus from industries like communications, information, military, space, etc. microelectronics will be replaced by nanoelectronics

the

feature size of electronic devices will be reduced to about 10 nm.

below

this size, transistors based on new concepts like single electron transistors, resonant tunnelling devices, etc. will have tobe developed operation is based on the concepts of mesoscopic and quantum physics
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 The evolution towards nanoelectronics has been possible because of advances in the deposition of very thin films to form heterostructures. molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) Very thin films of elementalsemiconductors,compound semiconductors can be deposited by MBE allows a layer-by-layer growth of films and superlattices as well as the doping of the material from sources But MBE is slow and expensive.
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 MOCVD is the preferred industrial technique to produce semiconductor heterostructures. mesoscopic systems require the formation of nanostructures in the range close to 100 nm The scaling down of device size will reach a limit and the rate of scaling down,predicted by Moores law will slow down. The main technological reasons for this limitting is the amount of heat generated,which cannot be eliminated because of thermal conductivity limits of the materials and the increasing number of overlayers
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 Another important technological factor is difficulty in controlling the parameter spread. many of the electrical parameters of the MOS transistors are set by doping; as the size of the region to be doped is decreased, the number of doping atoms becomes so low (about 10) that the parameter spread cannot be controlled appropriately. In addition,there are physical limits also.

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 Thermal limit: The energy necessary to write a bit should be several times kT which is the average energy of thermal fluctuations. In CMOS the lowest values contemplated to write a bit should not be smaller than about 2 eV, i.e. 100kT at room temperature Relativistic limit: Signals cannot propagate faster than the speed of light.If the nucleus of a microprocessor has a size of a few cm, it takes 1010 s for the signal to propagate, which corresponds to a frequency of about 10 GHz. Uncertainty principle: According to the Heisenbergs uncertainty principle, the energy and time needed to write or read a bit should be related by E t h. A safer limit is E t =100 h . Since for future circuits E could be as low as 1019 J, we can approach the quantum limit as the frequency increases.
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 Other fields of interest of nanoelectronics solid state nanoelectronics which deals with heterostructures of well-known materials (Si, SiO2, IIIV compounds), and several types of transistors: heterojunction, single-electron, resonant-tunnelling, ballistic, etc. Superconducting electronics - based on the switching properties of the Josephson junction, which consists of two superconducting layers separated by a very thin oxide insulating film that can be tunnelled by superconducting pairs of electrons. spintronics which exploits the spin orientation of electrons.
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 Optoelectronic devices, based mainly in III-V direct gap semiconductors, like quantum well semiconductor lasers with very low threshold currents and photodetectors are replacing the conventional ones, especially in long distance optical communications standard integrated circuit technology, coupled to transistors and optical interconnects, constituting the so-called optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC).

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CHARACTERISTIC LENGTHS IN MESOSCOPIC SYSTEMS Mesoscopic physics deals with structures which have a size between the macroscopic world and the microscopic or atomic one (few nano meters to 100nm) If the dimensions of the solid in which the electron is embedded is of the order of, or smaller than these characteristic lengths, the material might show new properties . The new proprerties are based on quantum mechanics
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 a mesoscopic system approaches its macroscopic limit if its size is several times its characteristic length. most commonly used characteristics lengths in mesoscopic systems are.

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i) de Broglie wavelength

(ii) Mean free path

e = ve (iii) Diffusion length

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(iv) Screening length

Coulomb potential

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Comparison between screened and unscreened coulombic potential

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(v) Localization length

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QUANTUM MECHANICAL COHERENCE If the electron interacts inelastically with a defect, or any impurity, the electrons change their energy and momentum, as well as the phase of their wave function. The phase coherence length L is defined as the distance travelled by the electron without the carrier wave changing its phase interference effects in the electron waves should only be observed if the particles move over distances of the order of, or smaller than, L. Coherent states can evidently show interference effects.

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 In mesoscopic physics, the loss of coherence is usually called dephasing. If electrons with phase 1 interfere with electrons of phase 2, we know from the wave theory that the amplitude of the resultant wave varies as cos(1 2) and the amplitudes can add up to each other, or they can be subtracted depending on the phase difference

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QUANTUM WELLS, WIRES, AND DOTS suppose that we have an electron confined within a box of dimensions Lx , Ly , Lz. If the characteristic length is (i) << Lx,Ly,Lz In this case the electron behaves as in a regular 3D bulk semiconductor. (ii) > Lx and Lx << Ly,Lz In this situation we have a 2D semiconductor perpendicular to the x-axis. This mesoscopic system is also called a quantum well (iii) > Lx , Ly and Lx,Ly << Lz corresponds to a 1D semiconductor or quantum wire, located along the z-axis.
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(iv) >>_Lx,Ly,Lz In this case it is said that we have a 0D semiconductor or a quantum dot

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DENSITY OF STATES AND DIMENSIONALITY The number of quantum states available per unit energy interval per unit volume is called density of states( DOS) for one, two and three dimensions aredenoted by n1D, n2D, and n3D respectively. If we consider the number of states per unit energy interval only, then it is denoted by 1D, 2D, and 3D respectively Unit volume refers to length, area and volume in one, two and three dimension respectively.

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 The DOS function,at a given value E of energy, is defined such that (E)E is equal to the number of states (i.e. solutions of Schrdinger equation) in the interval energy E around E. if the dimensions Li (i = x, y, z) are macroscopic and if proper boundary conditions are chosen, the energy levels can be treated as a quasi-continuous. when any of the dimensions Li is small enough, the DOS function becomes discontinuous. for bulk solids (E) varies with energy in the form E
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 If each quantum state or Bloch state in a solid is designated by a quantum number k, the general expression for the DOS function is

where the quantized energies are given by Ek and (E) is the Diracs delta function

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Density of states for a 1D semiconductor of length L

Consider the motion of a particle in a one dimensional box of width a. The possible energies are given by

and n is the quantum number

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 When a is large,the separation between energy levels is less and the energy spectrum grows nearly continuous. Considering n and E are continuous variables,from

The number of quantum states per unit energy interval

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1 = D

1 = 1 1 nE 1 1 EE 1

1 1 E E1 E1

1 = D

one quantum state can be occupied by two electrons due to two spin states

1 D

1 =1 = 1 EE1

1 1 1 h E 1 1 ma

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 The number of quantum states per unit energy interval per unit volume (in this case unit length) n1D is

where me* is the effective mass

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For a 2D semiconductor
Consider the motion of a particle of mass m in a two dimensional box of side a and b. Potential energy inside the box is zero and V = outside the box.

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 Applying the conditions = 0 at x = 0 and x = a. Again = 0 at y = 0 and y = b.

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, Substituting

in the expression

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The number of quantum states corresponding to the same energy is called degeneracy. Hence the above energy level is two fold degenerate. In 2D box, every energy quantum state has two fold degeneracy.

There is an energy state for any pair of quantum numbers (n1, n2)

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let

Every point with integer coordinates in the plane with axes n1 and n2 represents a state. All points in the washer of radii n and dn have same energy.
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-to find the number of states in the washer area.

-Since n1 and n2 are positive, we take the area of washer in the first quadrant.

-for electrons the allowed states is twice due to spin

Area gives the number of states having energy between E and E+dE
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 the density of state n2D(E),

DOS function is independent of energy. Similarly,for a 3D material,the DOS function is given by

where V=a3

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 The DOS function in 3D semiconductors is proportional toE, in 2D is constant, and in 1D varies inversely proportional to E. The equations for DOS were derived for perfectly 2D and 1D solids, but in the real world a 2D solid, for instance, is really a 3D one where the perpendicular dimension is very short. since electrons can move almost freely in the (x, y) plane,

nz refers to the quantization in the confined z-axis and is the step function Page 40

 for a quasi-1D solid or quantum wire along the zdirection

nx and ny are the quantum numbers for the confined x and y directions a quasi-0D solid or quantum dot, there is no continuous DOS function, since there is quantization in the three spatial directions

where i = (nx, ny, nz)

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