Mitra Dutta

Get to grips with the fundamental optical and optoelectronic properties of nanostructures. This comprehensive guide makes a wide variety of modern topics accessible, and includes up-to-date material on the optical properties of monolayer crystals, plasmonics, nanophotonics, UV quantum well lasers, and wide bandgap materials and heterostructures. The unified, multidisciplinary approach makes it ideal for those in disciplines spanning nanoscience, physics, materials science, and optical, electrical and mechanical engineering. Building on work first presented in Quantum Heterostructures (Cambridge, 1999), this volume draws on years of research and teaching experience. Rigorous coverage of basic principles makes it an excellent resource for senior undergraduates, and detailed mathematical derivations illuminate concepts for graduate students, researchers and professional engineers. The examples with solutions included in the text and end-of-chapter problems allows the students to use this text to enhance their understanding.

This book focuses on the theory of phonon interactions in nanoscale structures with particular emphasis on modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. The continuing progress in the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures with lower dimensional features has led to devices with enhanced functionality and even novel devices with new operating principles. The critical role of phonon effects in such semiconductor devices is well known. There is therefore a great need for a greater awareness and understanding of confined phonon effects. A key goal of this book is to describe tractable models of confined phonons and how these are applied to calculations of basic properties and phenomena of semiconductor heterostructures. The level of presentation is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in physics and engineering with some background in quantum mechanics and solid state physics or devices. A basic understanding of electromagnetism and classical acoustics is assumed.

This volume provides valuable summaries on many aspects of advanced semiconductor heterostructures and highlights the great variety of semiconductor heterostructures that has emerged since their original conception. As exemplified by the chapters in this book, recent progress on advanced semiconductor heterostructures spans a truly remarkable range of scientific fields with an associated diversity of applications. Some of these applications will undoubtedly revolutionize critically important facets of modern technology. At the heart of these advances is the ability to design and control the properties of semiconductor devices on the nanoscale. As an example, the intersubband lasers discussed in this book have a broad range of previously unobtainable characteristics and associated applications as a result of the nanoscale dimensional control of the underlying semiconductor heterostructures. As this book illustrates, an astounding variety of heterostructures can be fabricated with current technology; the potentially widespread use of layered quantum dots fabricated with nanoscale precision in biological applications opens up exciting advances in medicine. In addition, many more excellent examples of the remarkable impact being made through the use of semiconductor heterostructures are given. The summaries in this volume provide timely insights into what we know now about selected areas of advanced semiconductor heterostructures and also provide foundations for further developments.

This book focuses on the theory of phonon interactions in nanoscale structures with particular emphasis on modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. The continuing progress in the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures with lower dimensional features has led to devices with enhanced functionality and even novel devices with new operating principles. The critical role of phonon effects in such semiconductor devices is well known. There is therefore a great need for a greater awareness and understanding of confined phonon effects. A key goal of this book is to describe tractable models of confined phonons and how these are applied to calculations of basic properties and phenomena of semiconductor heterostructures. The level of presentation is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in physics and engineering with some background in quantum mechanics and solid state physics or devices. A basic understanding of electromagnetism and classical acoustics is assumed.

Foreword by Charles H TownesThis volume includes highlights of the theories underlying the essential phenomena occurring in novel semiconductor lasers as well as the principles of operation of selected heterostructure lasers. To understand scattering processes in heterostructure lasers and related optoelectronic devices, it is essential to consider the role of dimensional confinement of charge carriers as well as acoustical and optical phonons in quantum structures. Indeed, it is important to consider the confinement of both phonons and carriers in the design and modeling of novel semiconductor lasers such as the tunnel injection laser, quantum well intersubband lasers, and quantum dot lasers. The full exploitation of dimensional confinement leads to the exciting new capability of scattering time engineering in novel semiconductor lasers.As a result of continuing advances in techniques for growing quantum heterostructures, recent developments are likely to be followed in coming years by many more advances in semiconductor lasers and optoelectronics. As our understanding of these devices and the ability to fabricate them grow, so does our need for more sophisticated theories and simulation methods bridging the gap between quantum and classical transport.