Semiconductor Nanostructure Modeling

We propose the development of commercial software for the modeling of electronic, optical and opto-electronic properties of quantum semiconductor heterostructures. The work over Phase 1 will provide electronic bandstructure modeling using the finite element method and full-zone tight-binding computation of electronic states in multiple quantum wells, wires, and dots. Any of the Group III-V or II-VI compound semiconductors and Group IV elemental semiconductors can be included in the structure, with effects of strain due to lattice mismatch, and externally applied fields being accounted for in the modeling. The software will employ sparse-matrix methods in C++, and progress will be made towards parallel processing. Initial groundwork will be laid for the calculation of optical waveguiding in heterostructures as an integral part of the modeling environment.