Nanoelectronic Devices

Chapter 1

Quantum Mechanics for Nanoelectronic Devices

1.1 Fundamental Concepts of Quantum Mechanics

1.1.1 Wave Nature of Particles

In the late 19th century, scientists started to notice that there were phenomena that could not be explained by the classical theory of mechanics. One of them was the spectrum of absorption and emission by atoms. According to classical mechanics, the spectrum should be continuous, i.e., the emitted or absorbed light could have any frequency (wavelength). The experimental results, however, were surprising. The atoms emitted and absorbed light with discrete values of frequency only.

Let us examine the situation in more detail. Figure 1.1(a) shows an experimental setup to measure the emission spectrum of a hydrogen ...