Parabolic band approximation of the electron energy levels in a tetrahedral-shaped quantum dot

2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (11) ◽  
pp. 1327-1331
Author(s):  
T Pengpan ◽  
C Daengngam

In more elaborate schemes, an electron’s effective mass in a heterostructure semiconductor quantum dot (QD) depends on both its position and its energy. However, the electron’s effective mass can be simply modeled by a parabolic band approximation — the electron’s effective mass inside the QD — which is assumed to be constant and differs from the one outside the QD, which is also assumed to be constant. The governing equation to be solved for the electron’s energy levels inside the QD is the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. With the approximation, the nonlinear Schrödinger equation for a tetrahedral-shaped QD is discretized by using the finite-volume method. The discretized nonlinear Schrödinger equation is solved for the electron energy levels by a computer program. It is noted that the resulting energy levels for the parabolic mass model are nondegenerate due to the mass-gradient term at the corners, edges, and surfaces of the tetrahedral-shaped QD.PACS Nos.: 02.60.Cb, 03.65.Ge, 81.07.Ta

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