The self-consistent electronic structure of rectangular free-standing quantum wires: Fourier expansion approach

A method for the self-consistent calculation of rectangular free-standing quantum wires is presented. The method is also used for the electronic structure calculation of cladded quantum wires. It relies on the wavefunction's Fourier expansion, and uses the structure symmetry to save computation time. Calculations are performed for these two types of quantum wire at a number of dopant and surface state densities, and the influence of various parameters is analyzed. At low temperatures, the occurrence of Friedel oscillations is noticed, arising from a very limited number of well separated electronic states.