Izbrane teme sodobne fizike in matematike
Kvantne pike so polprevodniški nanokristali, v katerih so energijski nivoji zaradi majhne velikosti kvantizirani. Posledično so energije izsevanih fotonov natančno določene. Področje kvantnih pik je precej aktualno, kar dokazuje podeljena Nobelova nagrada za kemijo leta 2023. Ta članek služi kot pregled vsebin, za katero je bila podeljena. Članek najprej predstavi zgodovino raziskovanja področja in nato teoretični model izsevanja fotonov vse od enostavnega modela potencialne jame do raznih popravkov osnovnega modela. Na koncu predstavi še postopek sinteze kvantnih pik in nekatera področja, kjer so kvantne pike uporabne.
Quantum dots are semiconducting nanocrystals in which energy levels are quantized because of their small size. As a consequence the energies of emitted photons are exactly determined. The field of quantum dots is popular lately, as evidenced by Nobel prize for chemistry in 2023. This article serves as an overview of the topics for which the prize was awarded. The article first describes the history of reasearch of the field and then the theoretical model of photon emission, starting with particle in a box model and additional corrections to it. Finally, it describes the process of quantum dot synthesis and some areas where quantum dots are used.