Optical Emission from Quantum Wires

The physical properties of semiconductors with dimensions of the order of the de Broglie wavelength of electrons depend strongly on the device dimensions.1 In thin semiconductor heterostructures (quantum wells) the effective band gap is determined by the quantum well thickness in addition to the bulk properties of the quantum well material.2 This allows to increase the band gap in thin quantum wells by hundreds of meV if a suitable confinement material is employed. Furthermore the energy dependence of the density of states changes from a proportionality to E1/2 to a step function.