AbstractsPhysics

As lower dimensionality becomes more accessible for semiconductor devices, a thorough understanding of size effects is crucial. In this thesis, we review the literature to examine these effects, particularly surface state depletion, dielectric mismatch and quantum confinement, in a wide range of conditions including doping, surrounding environment, external field, and temperature in order to illustrate the general influence on properties such as activation energy, mobility, electron concentration, and resistivity. Methods of determining the sizes at which they become apparent are given. Ultimately, we remark that size effects are as important to degenerate-nondegenerate and metal-nonmetal transitions as doping and temperature, and describe how electrical transport properties of low dimensional semiconductors can be tuned by adjusting size, applying surface treatments, and altering the surrounding environment. Advisors/Committee Members: Kogan, Andrei (Committee Chair).