Second-order perturbative treatment for confined polarons in low-dimensional polar semiconductors

Within the framework of second-order Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theo ry, the effects of the interaction of the electrons and longitudinal optica l phonons in low-dimensional semiconducting heterostructures can be investi gated in a unified way. As a result, the ground-state energy for polarons c onfined in a general potential can be explicitly expressed as a one-dimensi onal integral. Moreover, some interesting problems, such as those of polaro ns in quantum wells, quantum wires, and quantum dots, can be readily addres sed just by taking different limits. Finally, in a general sense, it is sho wn on the basis of numerical calculations that the polaronic effect is enha nced with lowering dimensionality and increasing asymmetry.