Electrical transport in ensembles of semiconductor quantum dots

The novelty of nano physics is associated with the basic changes that take place in systems that consist of particles when their size is reduced to the nano scale. While the corresponding changes in the individual particles are relatively well understood the understanding of the effect of these changes on the properties of ensembles of such particles is still at a rudimentary level. This is in particular so for the electrical transport in such systems. In this paper we will try to evaluate the effect of the changes in the density and properties of the individual particles on the corresponding global electrical transport in the ensembles. This evaluation is based on our experimental results and their analyses as obtained on ensembles of silicon nano crystallites that are embedded in an insulating matrix.

► Provide a framework for transport in 3D ensembles of silicon nanocrystallites.
► Quantum confinement and Coulomb blockade affect the transport in those ensembles.
► For the very dilute ensembles the transport is controlled by tunneling–percolation.
► We have established a “local deconfinement” transition of the charge carriers.
► For high density ensembles the system behaves as a disordered semiconductor.