Mesoscopic Physics and Electronics (NanoScience and Technology)

Product Description Semiconductor technology has developed considerably during the past several decades. The exponential growth in microelectronic processing power has been achieved by a constant scaling down of integrated cir,cuits. Smaller fea­ ture sizes result in increased functional density, faster speed, and lower costs. One key ingredient of the LSI technology is the development of the lithog­ raphy and microfabrication. The current minimum feature size is already as small as 0.2 /tm, beyond the limit imposed by the wavelength of visible light and rapidly approaching fundamental limits. The next generation of devices is highly likely to show unexpected properties due to quantum effects and fluctuations. The device which plays an important role in LSIs is MOSFETs (metal­ oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors). In MOSFETs an inversion layer is formed at the interface of silicon and its insulating oxide. The inversion layer provides a unique two-dimensional (2D) system in which the electron concentration is controlled almost freely over a very wide range. Physics of such 2D systems was born in the mid-1960s together with the development of MOSFETs. The integer quantum Hall effect was first discovered in this system. From the Back Cover The combination of the lithography technology and the semiconductor heterostructure has produced quantum wires, quantum dots, antidots, quantum point contacts, etc. In such quantum structures, various new phenomena have been observed in the electron transport at low temperatures, such as conductance quantization due to the ballistic electron motion, universal conductance fluctuations due to quantum interference effects, and single-electron tunneling due to the discreteness of the electronic charge. They have provided challenging subjects important from the point of view of fundamental physics, and their possible device applications are actively pursued. Quantum wires and dots are expected also to be able to significantly improve optical devices such as lasers. This book provides general reviews on various subjects of pure physics, device physics, and materials research concerning such quantum structures, starting with a general introduction of physics of mesoscopic systems.