Adaptive Quantum Design of Semiconductor Devices

The term “adaptive quantum design” denotes a methodology for systematically seeking robust, manufacturable designs of semiconductor devices — especially semiconductor optoelectronic devices having nanoscale or even atomic- scale features. This methodology has been developed to complement advances in fabrication capabilities that make it possible to tailor semiconductor devices ever more precisely, such that it likely will soon be possible to routinely control the positions of features as small as atoms and molecules within devices. Because the number of atom configurations that could, potentially, be fabricated is almost unimaginably large and quantum fluctuations and collective quantum phenomena become important at molecular and atomic scales, traditional design methods and traditional models of device physics based on classical physics and semiclassical approximations of quantum phenomena are not adequate for exploration of the vast space of design options.