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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
Quantum confinement and electronic properties of tapered silicon nanowires
Zhigang Wu1, J B Neaton, Jeffrey C Grossman
1Berkeley Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Institute (BNNI), University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Abstract:
Using ab initio calculations, structural tapering of silicon nanowires is shown to have a profound effect on their electronic properties. In particular, the electronic structure of small-diameter tapered silicon nanowires is found to have a strong axial dependence, with unoccupied eigenstates being substantially more sensitive to diameter. Moreover, the states corresponding to the highest occupied and the lowest unoccupied states are spatially separated along the wire axis by the tapering-induced charge transfer and a strong electrostatic potential gradient, due to an appreciable variation in quantum confinement strength with diameter.
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