Quantum Theory of the Optical and Electronic Properties of Semiconductors

Abstract

This revised second edition on the Quantum Theory of the Optical and Electronic Properties of Semiconductors presents the basic elements needed to understand and engage in research in semiconductor physics. In this revised second edition misprints are corrected and some new and more detailed material is added. In order to treat the valence-band structure of semiconductors, an introduction to the k.p. theory and the related description in terms of the Luttinger Hamiltonian is included. An introductory chapter on mesoscopic semiconductor structures discussing the modifications of the envelope function approximation caused by the spatial quantum confinement is also included. Many results are developed in parallel first for bulk material, and then for quasi-two-dimensional quantum wells, and for quasi-one-dimensional quantum wires. Semiconductor quantum dots are treated in a separate chapter. The discussion of time-dependent and coherent phenomena in semiconductors has been considerably extended by including a section dealing with the theoretical description of photon echoes in semiconductors. A new chapter on magneto-absorption has been added, in which magneto-excitons and magneto-plasmas in two-dimensional systems are discussed. The chapter on electron kinetics due to the interaction with longitudinal-optical phonons has been extended. The material is presented in sufficient detail for graduate students and researchers who have a general background in quantum mechanics, and is aimed at solid state physicists, engineers, materials and optical scientists.