Quantum Confinement

QUANTUM CONFINEMENT

Definition

It is a process of reduction of the size of the solid such that the energy levels inside become discrete.

In this case, small "droplets" of isolated electrons are created. Thus, the energy of a small volume of such materials are quantized just like in an atom. This type of artificial or fake atoms have tunable electrical properties.

The quantum confinement effect is observed when the size of the particle is too small to be comparable to the wavelength (de-Broglie wavelength) of the electron.

It is to be noted that only a small percentage of electrons that are free to move during confinement and majority of electrons still tightly bound within inner orbitals.

Usually in order to reduce the dimensions of a given volume, either bottom-up approach or top-down approach is followed.

In bottom-up approach, low-volume structures are built atom by atom. In the top-down approach, material is removed from one or more of three dimensions (length, width, height) of a larger solid.

In both cases, a structure small enough for quantum behavior to manifest can be produced.