QUANTUM SIZE EFFECT ON THE ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF SOME TERNARY SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM DOTS

Abstract

Quantum dots (QD) also known as semiconductor fluorescent nanoparticles has gain a lot of attention because it is among the nanomaterials family that holds great potential for variety of applications. In this study the quantum size effect on the electronic properties of some ternary quantum dots of AlGaAs, GaInP, GaInSb, GaInAs and GaAsSb were investigated using the particle in a box model as the basis. The confinement energy, Coulombic energy and energy band gap of these quantum dots were computed. The results obtained showed that as the dot size increases, the confinement energy, Coulombic energy and energy band gap of these quantum dot decreases. Among the quantum dots considered, GaInSb has the highest confinement energy AlGaAs quantum dot has the largest Coulombic energy while GaInP has the highest energy band gap. The result of this work reveals that suitable choices of the size of the quantum dot can enhance the electronic and optical properties of these quantum dots for suitable applications