Electron energy level calculations for cylindrical narrow gap semiconductor quantum dot

Three computational techniques are presented for approximation of the groun d state energy and wave function of an electron confined by a disk-shaped I nAs quantum dot (QD) embedded in GaAs matrix. The problem is treated with t he effective one electronic band Hamiltonian, the energy and position depen dent electron effective mass approximation, and the Ben-Daniel Duke boundar y conditions. To solve the three dimensional (3D) Schrodinger equation, we employ (i) the adiabatic approximation, (ii) the adiabatic approximation wi th averaging, and (iii) full numerical solution. It is shown that the more efficient approximations (i) and (ii) can only be used for relatively large QD sizes. The full numerical method gives qualitative as well as quantitat ive trends in electronic properties with various parameters. (C) 2001 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.