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Formation of Strain Induced Quantum Dots in Gated Semiconductor Nanostructures
Published
Author(s)
Ted C. Thorbeck, Neil M. Zimmerman
Abstract
Elastic strain changes the energies of the conduction and valence bands in a semiconductor, which will affect transport through a semiconductor nanostructure. We show that the typical strains in a semiconductor nanostructure arising from metal gates or contacts are large enough to create strain‐induced quantum dots (QDs). We simulate two common silicon QD nanostructures, chemically grown nanowires with metal contacts and metal gates on top of bulk Si, and show strain‐induced QDs. So strain can be as important as electrostatics in QD operation and must be consider when designing a QD device.
Thorbeck, T.
and Zimmerman, N.
(2015),
Formation of Strain Induced Quantum Dots in Gated Semiconductor Nanostructures, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913832
(Accessed October 16, 2025)