The self-consistent electronic structure of spherical semiconductor quantum dots including bound and free states

Abstract

A self-consistent procedure for calculating the energy structure, wave functions and charge distribution in spherically symmetric semiconductor quantum dots is presented, that takes account of both bound and free electron states. The Schrödinger and Poisson equation are solved iteratively while using the Morse-type parametrized potential to keep the charge neutrality in each iterative step. Numerical calculations performed for GaAs Al 0.3 Ga 0.7 As based quantum dot indicate that bound states account for most of the charge accumulated in the dot, while including the free states is necessary only at larger doping levels to describe the depleted region outside the dot.