Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of notation
- 1 Toward the nanoscale
- 2 Particles and waves
- 3 Wave mechanics
- 4 Materials for nanoelectronics
- 5 Growth, fabrication, and measurement techniques for nanostructures
- 6 Electron transport in semiconductors and nanostructures
- 7 Electrons in traditional low-dimensional structures
- 8 Nanostructure devices
- Appendix: tables of units
- Index
2 - Particles and waves
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of notation
- 1 Toward the nanoscale
- 2 Particles and waves
- 3 Wave mechanics
- 4 Materials for nanoelectronics
- 5 Growth, fabrication, and measurement techniques for nanostructures
- 6 Electron transport in semiconductors and nanostructures
- 7 Electrons in traditional low-dimensional structures
- 8 Nanostructure devices
- Appendix: tables of units
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The evolution of microelectronics toward reduced device sizes has proceeded to a degree that renders conventional models, approaches, and theories inapplicable. Indeed, for objects with sizes of 100 nanometers or less it is frequently the case that the length scales associated with fundamental physical processes are comparable to the geometrical size of the device; also, fundamental time scales associated with physical processes are of the order of the time parameters for nanodevice operation. Therefore, on the nanoscale the theories and models underlying modern nanoelectronics become more complicated, and rely more and more on basic science.
Generally, in the nanoworld the fundamental laws of physics that govern particles and material fields differ from those that apply to familiar macroscopic phenomena such as the motion of a baseball or a train. Instead of classical mechanics, that works so well for macroscopic phenomena, the motion of particles in the nanoworld is determined by the so-called wave mechanics or quantum mechanics. An underlying principle of central importance for nanophysics is the fundamental concept that all matter, including electrons, nuclei, and electromagnetic fields, behaves as both waves and particles, that is, wave–particle duality is a basic characteristic of all matter.
At first glance, wave properties and particle properties for the same physical object are hardly compatible. To understand wave–particle duality, we will briefly review, in the following two subsections, the basic properties of particles and waves known from classical physics.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Introduction to NanoelectronicsScience, Nanotechnology, Engineering, and Applications, pp. 11 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007