Electronic Properties of Semiconductor Nanowires

This paper provides a review of the state-of-the-art electronic-structure calculations of semiconductor nanowires. Results obtained using empirical k.p, empirical tight-binding, semi-empirical pseudopotential, and with ab initio methods are compared. For conciseness, we will restrict our detailed discussions to free-standing plain and modulated nanowires. Connections to relevant experimental data, particularly band gaps and polarization anisotropy, will be made since these results depend crucially on the electronic properties. For completeness, a brief review on the synthesis of nanowires is included.