Theory of the optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures

✍ Scribed by S.W Koch; T Meier; W Hoyer; M Kira

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 222 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1386-9477
• DOI: 10.1016/s1386-9477(02)00358-2

✦ Synopsis

A microscopic many-body theory describing the optical and electronic properties of semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures is brie y reviewed. At the semiclassical level, the optical response is computed using Maxwell's equations together with the semiconductor Bloch equations which describe the dynamics of the diagonal and the o -diagonal terms of the reduced single-particle density matrix. These equations include the coupling between the semiconductor and the optical ÿeld as well as Coulomb many-body interactions among the optically excited carriers. Under quasi-equilibrium conditions, luminescence spectra can be obtained from absorption spectra on the basis of the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger relation for conditions usually limited to the regime of optical gain (lasers). More generally, light emission has to be computed at a fully quantum mechanical level leading to semiconductor luminescence equations.