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Fabrication Tecniques of Quantum well,Quantum Dot and Quantum Wire:

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Quantum Well:
A quantum well is a potential well with only discrete energy values. One technology to create quantization is to conne particles, which were originally free to move in three dimensions, to two dimensions, forcing them to occupy a planar region. The eects of quantum connement take place when the quantum well thickness becomes comparable to the de Broglie wavelength of the carriers (generally electrons and holes), leading to energy levels called "energy subbands", i.e., the carriers can only have discrete energy values.

Fabrication

Quantum wells are formed in semiconductors by having a material, like gallium arsenide sandwiched between two layers of a material with a wider bandgap, like aluminium arsenide. layer thickness down to monolayers. These structures can be grown by molecular beam epitaxy or chemical vapor deposition with control of the

(Other example: layer of indium gallium nitride (InGaN) sandwiched between two layers of gallium nitride (GaN). ) Thin metal lms can also support quantum well states, in particular, metallic thin overlayers grown in metal and semiconductor surfaces. The electron (or hole) is conned by the vacuum-metal interface in one side, and in general, by an absolute gap with semiconductor substrates, or by a projected band gap with metal substrates.

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Quantum Wire:

Template assistance Electrochemical deposition :Ensures fabrication of electrically continuous

wires since only takes place on conductive surfaces Applicable to a wide range of materials

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High pressure injection:Limited to elements and heterogeneously-melting

compounds with low melting points Does not ensure continuous wires Does not work well for diameters < 30-40 nm

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CVD Laser assisted techniques

Quantum dot:
Quantum dots, otherwise known as the articial atoms, house the electrons just the way the electrons would have been present in an atom, by applying a voltage. This application of voltage may also lead to the modication of the chemical nature of the material anytime it is desired, resulting in lead at one minute to gold at the other minute. But this method is quite beyond our reach till now. Being a semiconductor of very small size, quantum dot causes the band of energies to turn to discrete energy levels. Band gaps and related energy depend on the relationship between the size of the crystal and the exciton radius. The height and the energy between dierent energy levels varies inversely with the size of the quantum dot. The smaller the quantum dot, the higher is the energy possessed by it.

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So that when we vary the size of the quantum dot we can vary the colour of the semicondutor of the material with which quantum dot is made ... Smaller sized quantum dots give rise to the higher energy which results in smaller wavelength[4]. This smaller wavelength will aect colour of the dot i.e. for more wavelength the colour will be red and with decrease in wavelength the colour will gradually change towards blue.

For a CdSe quantum dot, a dot sized 5nm will show red colour whereas 1.5nm sized dot will show violet colour There are mainly 3 approaches for its fabrication,

1. Growing quantum dots in a beaker(Colloidal Synthesis) 2. Creating quantum dots at or near the surface of a semiconductor crystal(Lithography) 3. Growing  self assembled dots by depositing a semiconductor material with a larger lattice constant onto a semiconductor with a smaller lattice constant .(Epitaxy)

1.Colloidal Synthesis:

g1. High-temperature coordinating solvent synthesis of colloidal CdSe quantum dots. For a typical reaction, a three-necked ask is placed in a heating mantle and equipped with a thermocouple and temperature controller. A cadmium precursor (e.g. cadmium oxide or cadmium acetate) is dissolved in the tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) coordinating solvent in an inert atmosphere (argon or nitrogen ow). Under continuous stirring at high temperature ( nearly320 C), a selenium precursor dissolved in tri-n-octylphospine (TOP) is swiftly injected into the ask, initiating rapid nucleation of CdSe nanoparticles. Nucleation ceases quickly, partially due to the quick decrease in temperature (to nearly290 C) caused by the injection of the room-temperature solution, and particle growth ensues. When the desired size has been obtained, the solution may then be cooled (nearly220 C) to prevent further particle growth. A passivating layer of ZnS may then be grown epitaxially by injection of zinc and sulfur precursors dissolved in TOP. Upon cooling to room temperature, these core-shell QDs may be isolated via precipitation.
By growing quantum dots in a beaker which may be made up of nearly every semiconductor and many a metals eg cobalt, gold, nickel etc.

2.Lithography:
By growing quantum dots in a semiconductor heterostructure which refers to a plane of one semiconductor sandwiched between two other semiconductors. If this sandwiched layer is very thin i.e. about 10 nanometers or less, then the electrons can not move vertically and thus are conned to a particular dimension[2]. This is called the quantum well. When thin slice of this material is taken to create a narrow strip then it results in a quantum wire, as it gets

trapped in a 2 dimensional area. Rotating this to 90 degrees and repeating the procedure connes the electron in a 3 dimension which is called the quantum dot. According to quantum mechanics and the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle[1], the more conned an electron is, the more uncertain is its momenta; and hence, the wider the range of momentum is, the higher is the energy possessed by the electron i.e. may be innite in case the electron is conned to an innitely thin layer. The electrons conned in an electron wire are free only in one dimension, those conned in a plane have no freedom in the 3rd dimension, and those conned in a quantum dot are not free in any dimension.

3.Epitaxy:
Self-assembled dots are also grown, by depositing a semiconductor with larger lattice constant on a semiconductor with smaller lattice constant eg. Germanium on Silicon. These self-assembled dots are used to make quantum dot lasers. Hence, the quantum dots are actually formed when very thin semiconductor lms buckle due to the stress of having lattice structure slightly dierent in size from those on which the lms are grown.

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Applications:

1. Quantum computation 2. Photovoltaic devices: solar cells 3. Biology : biosensors, imaging 4. Light emitting diodes: LEDs eg. White LEDs 5. Flat-panel displays 6. Memory elements 7. Photodetectors 8. Lasers 9. Life sciences.