Quantum confinement: Size on the grill!

Abstract Quantum effects becomes more and more pronounced at the nanoscale. However, the size where those effects appear strongly depends on the nature of the semiconductor. This paper presents a simple methodology to calculate precisely the size where quantum effects appear for each individual semiconductor. This critical size is calculated from the bulk energy bandgap, index of refraction or dielectric constant of the semiconductor. This work paves the way to experimentalists who will now be able to precisely determine in which confinement regime their semiconductor nanostructure belongs to. Trends within the two most important group of semiconductors, II-VI and III-V, are also clarified based on the spin-orbit coupling.