Enhanced electron-hole interaction and optical absorption in a silicon nanowire

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Enhanced electron-hole interaction and optical absorption in a silicon nanowire

Li Yang, Catalin D. Spataru, Steven G. Louie, and M. Y. Chou

Phys. Rev. B 75, 201304(R) – Published 23 May 2007

Abstract

We present a first-principles study of the correlated electron-hole states in a silicon nanowire of a diameter of $1.2 nm$ and their influence on the optical absorption spectrum. The quasiparticle states are calculated employing a many-body Green’s function approach within the GW approximation to the electron self-energy, and the effects of the electron-hole interaction to optical excitations are evaluated by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The enhanced Coulomb interaction in this confined geometry results in an unusually large binding energy $(1 - 1.5 eV)$ for the excitons, which dominate the optical absorption spectrum.

Received 8 August 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.75.201304

Authors & Affiliations

Li Yang¹, Catalin D. Spataru^2,3, Steven G. Louie^2,3, and M. Y. Chou¹

¹School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0430, USA
²Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, California 94720, USA
³Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley, National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

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Vol. 75, Iss. 20 — 15 May 2007

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Physical Review B

covering condensed matter and materials physics