Electronic states in low-dimensional nano-structures: Comparison between the variational and plane wave basis method

A comparison is made between the plane wave basis and variational method. Within the framework of effective-mass approximation theory, the variational and plane wave basis method are used to calculate ground state energy and ground state binding energy in low-dimensional nano-structures under the external electric field. Comparing calculation results, the donor binding energies of ground state display the consistent trend, both of them are strongly dependent on the quantum size, impurity position and external electric field. However, the impurity ground state energy calculated using variational method may be larger than the real value and it results in the smaller binding energy for variational method. In addition, the binding energy is more sensitive to the external electric field for the variational method, which can be seen more clearly from Stark shift.