Physics of nanostructures

This EU course presents the physical properties of various nanostructures such as quantum wells, 1D photonic crystals, carbon nanotubes and graphene. Electronic (structure and transport), vibrational and optical properties are covered, as well as radiation-matter interaction.

The aim is to describe the development of low-dimensional materials, the associated electronic, photonic and phononic structures, and to study transport phenomena, electron-photon and electron-phonon couplings, excitons, and the absorption, emission and scattering of light.

Describe physical phenomena occurring at the nanoscale and understand the properties of nanomaterials.

Crystallography, reciprocal lattice. Band structure. Electromagnetic wave propagation (Maxwell's equations). Crystal vibrations, light absorption and dispersion.

Recommended prerequisites:

Excitonic effects, electronic and phononic dispersion curves.

Continuous assessment.

4 written exams and 1 oral.

The final score is the average of the 5 scores.

Carbon-based nanostructures :

Introduction to carbon-based nanostructures
Structural, electronic and optical properties of graphene and monofoil nanotubes
Raman spectroscopy
Applications to carbon nanostructures

Nano-photonics : 

1D, 2D and 3D photonic crystals

Reflectivity and transmission through transfer matrices

Strip diagram

Anisotropic media

Plasmonics

Optical spectroscopy of nanostructures :

 Interaction between light and electrons confined in a nanostructure

Semiconductor quantum wells and boxes: intra- and inter-band transitions

Quantum" light emitters

Nanotransport :

Semi-classical transport theories
Quantum transport: Effect of dimensionality and band structure
Landauer formalism
Transport in nanotubes and graphene
Quantum Hall effect and metrology
The high mobility transistor HEMT