Quantum and Solid-State Physics for Nanostructures

Catalog description

This course describes the key elements of quantum mechanics and solid state physics that are necessary in understanding the modern semiconductor devices. Quantum mechanical topics include solution of Schrodinger equation solution for potential wells and barriers, subsequently applied to tunneling and carrier confinement. Solid state topics include electronic structure of atoms, crystal structures, direct and reciprocal lattices. Detailed discussion is devoted to energy band theory, effective mass theory, energy-momentum relations in direct and indirect band gap semiconductors, intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors, statistical physics applied to carriers in semiconductors, scattering and generation and recombination processes.