Physics of Semiconductors and Their Heterostructures


Book Description

This graduate-level textbook offers a comprehensive treatment of the underlying physics behind modern semiconductor devices, with applications to specific modern solid-state devices throughout. Modular in organization, it should be suitable for a range of courses in solid state physics and devices in both physics and electrical engineering departments.




The Physics of Semiconductors


Book Description

The 4th edition of this highly successful textbook features copious material for a complete upper-level undergraduate or graduate course, guiding readers to the point where they can choose a specialized topic and begin supervised research. The textbook provides an integrated approach beginning from the essential principles of solid-state and semiconductor physics to their use in various classic and modern semiconductor devices for applications in electronics and photonics. The text highlights many practical aspects of semiconductors: alloys, strain, heterostructures, nanostructures, amorphous semiconductors, and noise, which are essential aspects of modern semiconductor research but often omitted in other textbooks. This textbook also covers advanced topics, such as Bragg mirrors, resonators, polarized and magnetic semiconductors, nanowires, quantum dots, multi-junction solar cells, thin film transistors, and transparent conductive oxides. The 4th edition includes many updates and chapters on 2D materials and aspects of topology. The text derives explicit formulas for many results to facilitate a better understanding of the topics. Having evolved from a highly regarded two-semester course on the topic, The Physics of Semiconductors requires little or no prior knowledge of solid-state physics. More than 2100 references guide the reader to historic and current literature including original papers, review articles and topical books, providing a go-to point of reference for experienced researchers as well.




Characterization of Semiconductor Heterostructures and Nanostructures


Book Description

In the last couple of decades, high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices based on semiconductor heterostructures have been required to obtain increasingly strict and well-defined performances, needing a detailed control, at the atomic level, of the structural composition of the buried interfaces. This goal has been achieved by an improvement of the epitaxial growth techniques and by the parallel use of increasingly sophisticated characterization techniques and of refined theoretical models based on ab initio approaches. This book deals with description of both characterization techniques and theoretical models needed to understand and predict the structural and electronic properties of semiconductor heterostructures and nanostructures. - Comprehensive collection of the most powerful characterization techniques for semiconductor heterostructures and nanostructures - Most of the chapters are authored by scientists that are among the top 10 worldwide in publication ranking of the specific field - Each chapter starts with a didactic introduction on the technique - The second part of each chapter deals with a selection of top examples highlighting the power of the specific technique to analyze the properties of semiconductors




Wave Mechanics Applied to Semiconductor Heterostructures


Book Description

Examines the basic electronic and optical properties of two- dimensional semiconductor heterostructures based on III-V and II-VI compounds. Explores various consequences of one-dimensional size-quantization on the most basic physical properties of heterolayers. Beginning with basic quantum mechanical properties of idealized quantum wells and superlattices, it discusses the occurrence of bound states when the heterostructure is imperfect or when it is shone with near bandgap light.




Epitaxy of Semiconductors


Book Description

The extended and revised edition of this textbook provides essential information for a comprehensive upper-level graduate course on the crystalline growth of semiconductor heterostructures. Heteroepitaxy is the basis of today’s advanced electronic and optoelectronic devices, and it is considered one of the most important fields in materials research and nanotechnology. The book discusses the structural and electronic properties of strained epitaxial layers, the thermodynamics and kinetics of layer growth, and it describes the major growth techniques: metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy, molecular-beam epitaxy, and liquid-phase epitaxy. It also examines in detail cubic and hexagonal semiconductors, strain relaxation by misfit dislocations, strain and confinement effects on electronic states, surface structures, and processes during nucleation and growth. Requiring only minimal knowledge of solid-state physics, it provides natural sciences, materials science and electrical engineering students and their lecturers elementary introductions to the theory and practice of epitaxial growth, supported by references and over 300 detailed illustrations. In this second edition, many topics have been extended and treated in more detail, e.g. in situ growth monitoring, application of surfactants, properties of dislocations and defects in organic crystals, and special growth techniques like vapor-liquid-solid growth of nanowires and selective-area epitaxy.




Electronic States and Optical Transitions in Semiconductor Heterostructures


Book Description

The theoretical basis and the relevant experimental knowledge underlying our present understanding of the electrical and optical properties of semiconductor heterostructures. Although such structures have been known since the 1940s, it was only in the 1980s that they moved to the forefront of research. The resulting structures have remarkable properties not shared by bulk materials. The text begins with a description of the electronic properties of various types of heterostructures, including discussions of complex band-structure effects, localised states, tunnelling phenomena, and excitonic states. The focus of the remainder of the book is on optical properties, including intraband absorption, luminescence and recombination, Raman scattering, subband optical transitions, nonlinear effects, and ultrafast optical phenomena. The concluding chapter presents an overview of some of the applications that make use of the physics discussed. Appendices provide background information on band structure theory, kinetic theory, electromagnetic modes, and Coulomb effects.




Semiconductor Physics and Applications


Book Description

This textbook covers the basic physics of semiconductors and their applications to practical devices, with emphasis on the basic physical principles upon which these devices operate. Extensive use of figures is made to enhance the clarity of the presentation and to establish contact with the experimental side of the topic. Graduate students and lecturers in semiconductor physics, condensed matter physics, electromagnetic theory, and quantum mechanics will find this a useful textbook and reference work.







The Physics of Low-dimensional Semiconductors


Book Description

The composition of modern semiconductor heterostructures can be controlled precisely on the atomic scale to create low-dimensional systems. These systems have revolutionised semiconductor physics, and their impact on technology, particularly for semiconductor lasers and ultrafast transistors, is widespread and burgeoning. This book provides an introduction to the general principles that underlie low-dimensional semiconductors. As far as possible, simple physical explanations are used, with reference to examples from actual devices. The author shows how, beginning with fundamental results from quantum mechanics and solid-state physics, a formalism can be developed that describes the properties of low-dimensional semiconductor systems. Among numerous examples, two key systems are studied in detail: the two-dimensional electron gas, employed in field-effect transistors, and the quantum well, whose optical properties find application in lasers and other opto-electronic devices. The book includes many exercises and will be invaluable to undergraduate and first-year graduate physics or electrical engineering students taking courses in low-dimensional systems or heterostructure device physics.




Basic Semiconductor Physics


Book Description

A detailed description of the basic physics of semiconductors. All the important equations describing the properties of these materials are derived without the help of other textbooks. The reader is assumed to have only a basic command of mathematics and some elementary semiconductor physics. The text covers a wide range of important semiconductor phenomena, from the simple to the advanced.