University of Gondar: College of Natural and Computational Science

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 8

UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

College of Natural and computational Science


Department Of PHYSICS
Post Graduate program in Physics

Research Methodology

Review on: Semiconductor Nanotechnology

Reviewed By:1. Mengaw Babey (GUS00732/10),

2. Wolelaw Agumass (GUS00718/10),

3. Yeshiwas Ambachew (GUS00722/10),

4. Solomon Fenta,

5. ZeynuYassin,

Submitted to: Tewolde Gebru (Assistant Proffessor)

August, 2019 G.C.


Gondar, Ethiopia

1. Introduction

1.1 What is Nanotechnology?


Nanotechnology is a field of science and technology of controlling matter on a Nano scale. It is a
highly multidisciplinary field, including electrical and mechanical engineering, physics,
chemistry, and biosciences. Nanotechnology will radically affect all these disciplines and their
application areas (Ermolov V et.al,2007). It is commonly attributed for the technologies leading
to produce nano-scaled materials (10-9 m) at nanometer dimension. This feather of Nano-
particles provides a larger surface space per unit mass than those which are not in Nano size
(Kannaparthy R et.al, 2011). To create Nano-structured materials there are two commonly
routine techniques can be used, top-down technique and bottom-up technique, which their main
difference is based on the size of primary entities applied to build Nano components with or
without atomic level control (Iadiz MAR et.al, 2017). One of the main applications of
nanotechnology and therefore a driving force for Nano science is the electronics industry. Over
the past few decades, the transistor has been continually miniaturized. Modern integrated circuits
incorporate transistors with feature as small as 32 nm (Jan-Michael Rost, 2010). Nanotechnology
broadly includes all technologies that handle nano - scale materials, and in a narrow sense,
technologies that handle
Nano science and nanotechnology are the “Research and technology development at the atomic,
molecular and macromolecular levels in the length scale of approximately 1-100 nanometer
range, to provide a fundamental understanding of phenomena and materials at the nanoscale and
to create and use structures, devices and systems that have novel properties and functions
because of their small and/or intermediate size”.

1.2 Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material that has an electrical conductivity between a conductor and an
insulator. In semiconductors, the highest occupied energy band, the valence band is completely
filled with electrons and the empty next one is the conduction band. The resistivity of the
semiconductor can be altered by up to 10 orders of magnitude, by doping or external biases. In
the case of conductors, that have very low resistivity, the resistance is difficult to alter, and the
highest occupied energy band is partially filled with electrons and the insulator has extremely
high resistivity. It is difficult to alter the resistivity through doping or external fields and the band
gap between the valence band and the conduction band is large. In a metallic conductor, the
current is carried by the flow of electrons. In semiconductors, current can be carried either by the
flow of electrons or by the flow of positively-charged holes in the electron structure of the
material. In the past 10 years, nanomaterial with diameters in the range of 1-20 nm, have become
a major interdisciplinary area of research interest and their extremely s mall feature size has the
potential for wide-ranging industrial, biomedical, and electronic applications. Surfaces and
interfaces are very important for nanomaterial, but in the case of bulk materials, a relatively
small percentage of atoms will be at or near a surface or interface.

1.3. Semiconductor Nanoparticles


Semiconductor Nano crystals (NCs) are made from a variety of different compounds. They are
referred to as II-VI, III-V or IV-VI semiconductor nanocrystals, based on the periodic table
groups into which these elements are formed. For example, silicon and germanium are group IV,
GaN, GaP, GaAs, InP and InAs are III-V, while those of ZnO, ZnS, CdS, CdSe and CdTe are II-
VI semiconductors.

Classifications of Semiconductor Nanostructures


In Nano crystalline materials, the electrons are confined to regions having one, two or three
dimensions when the relative dimension is comparable with the de Broglie wavelength. For a
semiconductor like CdSe, the de Broglie wavelength of free electron is around 10 nm. The
nanostructures of semiconductor crystals having the z direction below this critical value (thin
film, layer structure, quantum well) are defined as 2D nanostructures. When the dimension both
in the x and z direction is below this critical value (linear chain structure, quantum wire) the
nanostructures are defined as 1D and when the y direction is also below this threshold (cluster,
colloid, Nano crystal, quantum dot) it is referred to as 0D.
2.1. Zero Dimensional (0D) Nanostructures
In the early stages of research on Nano-building block synthesis, zero dimensional shapes
were regarded as the most basic and symmetric, including spheres and cubes. Several
semiconductor Nano crystals have been grown from the ageing processes of ionic precursors
inside organic micelles. However, Nano crystals obtained by this method have relatively poor
crystallinity or polydispersity in their size. As an alternative way to solve these problems, a
thermal decomposition method of organometallic precursors under hot organic solution was
adopted.

2.2. Quasi One Dimensional (1D) Nanostructures


The term quasi one dimensional nanostructures is used, because the dimensions are often
larger than the indicated threshold, although elongation along one main axis still exists.
When the diameter of the Nano rod, nanowire or nanotube becomes smaller, there is often a
significant change in the properties with respect to crystalline solids or even two dimensional
systems. A bismuth nanowire is an excellent example, which transforms into a
semiconductor, as the wire diameter becomes smaller. By controlling the growth variables
such as temperature, the choice of capping molecules, precursor concentrations, and
crystalline phases of the nuclei and the choice of the regime between kinetically controlled
and thermodynamically controlled growth; various Nano-building blocks with multi-
dimensionalities have been produced. To generate one dimensional Nano crystals,
researchers have explored the ‘one step in situ syntheses of 1D Nano rods, utilizing methods
similar to those for the well-studied spherical Nano crystals.

2.3. Two Dimensional (2D) Nanostructures


The family of 2D Nano systems encompasses all those systems that exhibit two dimensions
exceeding the third one. However, the number and variety of inorganic Nano objects
belonging to this family is far lower. With respect to 0D and 1D Nano systems. Indeed,
nature tends to organize materials in a three dimensional way. 2D assemblies usually do not
grow except under special and controlled experimental conditions. The main synthesis
methodologies of 2D nanostructures can be summarized as: (i) anisotropic crystal growth, (ii)
surfactant-assisted synthesis and (iii) the assembly of simpler 0D or 1D Nano systems.
2.4. Three Dimensional (3D) Nano systems
Objects having either an overall size in the non-Nano metric range (mainly in micrometer or
millimeter range), but displaying Nano metric features (such as Nano sized confinement
spaces) or resulting from the periodic arrangement and assembly of Nano sized building
blocks, can be classified as ‘3D Nano systems’. They exhibit different molecular and bulk
properties. In particular, 3D Nano crystals superstructures are prepared by assembling basic
Nano sized building blocks such as; 0D spheres 1D rods and 2D plates, to have bigger sized
structures of innovative shapes. On the contrary, Nano porous materials are made with a
‘complementary’ approach, since a system of Nano sized void pores is obtained within a
continuous bulk material.

3. Quantum Confinement Effects


The quantum confinement effects in low dimensional semiconductor systems were studied two
decades ago. In the last decade, comprehensive, well written reviews appeared which
concentrated on the quantum confinement effects of various semiconductors with the emphasis
on the optical properties, including absorption and luminescence. Obviously, the confinement of
an electron and hole in Nano crystals significantly depends on the material properties, namely,
on the Bohr radius aB. These effects take place in bigger Nano crystals and depend on the
material properties, namely, on the Bohr radius aB = 2.34 nm and aB of about 10 nm, which
would have Cd related compounds such as CdTe, CdZnTe and CdTeSe. One of the most
important consequences of the spatial confinement effect is an increase in the energy of the band
-to-band excitation peaks (blue shift), as the radius R of a microcrystalline semiconductor is
reduced in relation with the Bohr radius. Theoretically, the regimes of quantum confinement
differ in their main electron-hole interaction energy, i.e., the Coulomb term and the confinement
energy of the electron and hole and kinetic energy.

3.1. Weak Confinement Regime


To observe this regime, the radius R of a crystallite should be greater than the bulk exciton Bohr
radius aB. In this region of weak confinement, the dominant energy is the Coulomb term and
there already occurs a size quantization of the exciton motion. The exciton energy states are
shifted to higher energies by confinement and the shift in energy ∆E is proportional to 1/R2 . The
shift ‘∆E’ of the exciton ground state is given approximately by

Where, M is the mass of the exciton and it is given by M=m e +mh , with me and mh being the
effective masses of the electron and hole respectively.

3.2. Moderate Confinement Regime


The moderate confinement regime occurs when R≈ aB and ah < R < ae, where, ah and ae are the
hole and electron Bohr radii, respectively. In II-VI semiconductors, this region is well observable
in small QDs. Its characteristic feature is the well restricted motion of a photo excited hole.

3.3. Strong Confinement Regime


Finally, the size of a QD can be decreased in such a way that R<< a B and R << ah and ae in the
strong confinement regime. The Coulomb term of electron-hole interaction is now small and can
be ignored or treated as perturbation. The electrons and holes can now be thought of as
confinement independent particles. So excitons are not formed and the separate size quantization
of an electron and hole is the dominant factor. The optical spectra consist also of a series of lines
due to the transition between sub-bands.

4. Application of Semiconductor Nano materials


Semiconductor nanomaterial has interesting physical and chemical properties and useful
functionalities, when compared with their conventional bulk counterparts and molecular
materials. Narrow and intensive emission spectra, continuous absorption bands, high chemical
and photo bleaching stability, process ability, and surface functionality are among the most
attractive properties of these materials. The development of “Nano chemistry” is reflected in an
immense number of publications on the synthesis of semiconductor nanoparticles. For instance,
the spatial quantum confinement effect results in significant change in optical properties of
semiconductor nanomaterial. The very high disparity (high surface-to-volume ratio), with both
physical and chemical properties of the semiconductor has a major influence on their optical and
surface properties. As a result, semiconductor nanomaterial have been the focus of research for
about 20 years and have attracted significant interest in research and applications in diverse
disciplines such as solid state physics, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, colloid
chemistry, materials science, and recently biological sciences, medical sciences, engineering, and
interdisciplinary fields. Among the unique properties of nanomaterial, the movement of electrons
and holes in semiconductor nanomaterial is primarily governed by the well-known quantum
confinement, and the transport properties related to phonons and photons are largely affected by
the size and geometry of the materials (Burda C. et.al. 2005). The specific surface area and
surface-to volume ratio increase drastically as the size of the material.

5. References
1. Alivisatos, A. P. Science 1996, 271, 933.
2. M.N. Horenstein, J. Electrostatics 67 (2009) 384.
3. Ermolov V, Heino M, Karkkainen A, Lehtiniemi R, Nefedov N, et al. (2007)
Significance of nanotechnology for future wireless devices and communications. IEEE
18th Int Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, Athens 1-5.
4. Kannaparthy R, Kanaparthy A (2011) The changing face of dentistry: nanotechnology.
Int J Nanomedicine 6: 2799-804.
5. Iadiz MAR, Bamedi M, Fakour SR (2017) Periodontal Diseases and Recently Applied
Nano-Technology: A Review Article. Health 9: 345-51.
6. Komatsu H, Ogasawara A (2005) Applying Nanotechnology to Electronics.16: 36-45.
7. Rodgers P (2006) Nanoelecronics: Single File. Nat Nanotechnol.
8. Jan-Michael Rost (2010) Nanoscience and nanotechnology in physics and chemistry,
Research Perspectives of the Max Planck Society.
Burda, C.; Chen, X.; Narayanan, R.; El-Sayed, M. A. Chem. Rev. 2005, 105, 1025.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................1
1.1 What is Nanotechnology?..................................................................................................................1
1.2 Semiconductor.............................................................................................................................1
1.3. Semiconductor Nanoparticles...........................................................................................................2
Classifications of Semiconductor Nanostructures.......................................................................................2
2.1. Zero Dimensional (0D) Nanostructures............................................................................................2
2.2. Quasi One Dimensional (1D) Nanostructures...................................................................................3
2.3. Two Dimensional (2D) Nanostructures.............................................................................................3
2.4. Three Dimensional (3D) Nano systems.............................................................................................3
3. Quantum Confinement Effects............................................................................................................4
3.1. Weak Confinement Regime.........................................................................................................4
3.2. Moderate Confinement Regime..................................................................................................5
3.3. Strong Confinement Regime........................................................................................................5
4. Application of Semiconductor Nano materials....................................................................................5
5. References...........................................................................................................................................6

You might also like