Coupled effects in low-dimensional nanostructures and multiphysics modeling

Melnik, R.V.N.

Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Editor Nawla, H.S.,  Vol. 12, 517--531, American
Scientific Publishers, ISBN 1-58883-161-2, 2011

About this encyclopedic entry:

CONTENTS
1. Introduction
1.1. Low-dimensional nanostructures in a historical context
1.2. Low-dimensional nanostructures as multiscale complex systems
2. Hierarchy of Mathematical Models for LDSNs
3. Studying Properties of LDSNs with Numerical Methodologies
4. Incorporating New Effects
4.1. Coupled electromechanical, nonlocal, and boundary effects
4.2. Coupled effects owing to spatiotemporal interactions in LDSNs: transport and control
4.3. Coupled thermoelectric and thermomechanical effects
4.4. Thermopiezoelectric effects in nanostructures
4.5. Magnetic and spin-orbit couplings
4.5.1. Coupling owing to the magnetic field
4.5.2. Spin coupling
4.6. Many-body coupled effects
4.7. Higher order nonlinear effects
4.8. Phase transformations and phase stability in nanostructures
5. Applications of Low-Dimensional Nanostructures and Concluding Remarks
Glossary
References

An extract from the introduction of the entry:

In semiconductor superlattices, the bandwidth can be tuned by changing the width of the barriers wells. Such superlattices attracted attention in early 1960s and the early studies of the effect of a periodic modulation of the potential in one direction on the crystal band structure is owing to Keldysh. Later, Esaki, Tsu, and others used 1D models to study transport effects in semiconductor superlattices. In earlier 1970s, heterostructures were realized in the laboratories. Since that time, the field of low-dimensional systems and nanostructures has grown substantially and includes now semiconductor heterostructures, quantum wells, superlattices, mesoscopic and 2D electron systems, quantum wires, and quantum dots. The field has experienced an unprecedented growth in terms of applications, and in addition to its early focus on semiconductor lasers, it includes now a wealth of applications in optoelectronics, quantum information processing, security and defence, health care and biotechnologies, and among many other areas.