The effect of pressure on the thermodynamic properties of hydrogenic impurity in the GaAs semiconductor quantum well

ABSTRACT

Studying the thermodynamic properties of hydrogen impurity in low-dimensional nanostructures under high-pressure environment is crucial for understanding the optical property and thermal excitation behaviour of semiconductor material. Here, we extensively explore the effect of pressure on thermodynamic properties, specifically, the average energy, free energy, entropy, and heat capacity of one-dimensional (1-D) hydrogenic impurity in GaAs semiconductor quantum well. Our findings reveal some novel phenomenon in the thermodynamic properties of hydrogenic impurity as pressure increases in the GaAs quantum well. Remarkably, at a constant temperature, both the average energy and free energy of hydrogenic impurity decrease as pressure rises, while entropy increases with increasing pressure. Intriguingly, the heat capacity shows distinct behaviour with varying pressure for different sizes of the quantum well. For very small size of the quantum well, the heat capacity increases with increasing pressure. However, for larger size of the quantum wells, the variation of heat capacity with pressure becomes irregular, showing a changeover from an increase to a decrease in response to increasing pressure. This research presents a pioneering method that employs pressure as a versatile tool for modulating the thermodynamic properties of hydrogenic impurity states in the nanostructures, and has some guidance for the preparation and synthesis of semiconductor devices.

KEYWORDS:

• Thermodynamic property
• pressure
• hydrogenic impurity
• GaAs semiconductor quantum well

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 11374133], and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China [grant number ZR2019MA066]. We also thank the referees for their good suggestions.