ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will move from atoms and molecules to the
world of solids. Here, we are less concerned with large scale
extended solids, where “large scale” here refers to solids with all
dimensions larger than about 100 nm, where size-effects do not
play a significant role. Instead, we will concern ourselves with
“low dimensional” nanostructures, whereby at least one dimen-
sion of the solid is less than about 100 nm in length. In such
low dimensional systems and nanostructures, the physical prop-
erties differ dramatically from those of their corresponding bulk
materials because quantum effects become significant. As seen in
Chapter 3, confinement of quantummechanical wave functions in
regions of nanoscale dimensions induces a discretisation of energy
levels, and in this chapter we will introduce the effects of low
dimensionality on the electron density of states and related elec-
tronic properties.
