quantum confinement effect

synonym: quantum size effect
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.08861
Effect occurring if at least one dimension of a structure is comparable to the de Broglie wavelength of the electron-hole pair and the motion of charge carriers is thus quantized by the structure boundary.
Notes:
  1. A material composed of quantum-size structures exhibits electronic and optic properties different from those of bigger structures. A quantum size effect can be thus detected as an alteration of electronic and optical properties of a solid when reducing its particle size down to nanometer scale.
  2. Based on the confinement dimensionality the following quantum-size objects are distinguished:
    1. quantum dot: three-dimensional confinement; example: nanoparticles of CdS;
    2. quantum wire: two-dimensional confinement; example: carbon nanotubes;
    3. quantum well: one-dimensional (linear) confinement; example: nanoscale layer of GaAs sandwiched between two layers of a wide-band-gap semiconductor such as AlAs.
Source:
PAC, 2022, 94, 15. (Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)) on page 43 [Terms] [Paper]