Thermodynamic Properties of Electron Gas in Semiconductor Nanowires

Expressions are given for the concentration, density of thermodynamic states, entropy, and heat capacity of the electron gas in narrow-gap InAs nanowires, and it is shown that they are of an oscillatory nature. At low temperatures, the oscillations manifest themselves quite distinctly, and they are smoothed out with increasing temperature. Graphs of the dependence of the thermodynamic quantities of the electron gas on the chemical potential for electrons with a nonparabolic zone are steeper than those with a parabolic zone. It has been established that an increase in the nonparabolicity of the energy bands will lead to a weakening of the oscillations of the thermodynamic quantities of the electron gas. The temperature dependences of the concentration, density of thermodynamic states of entropy and heat capacity of the electron gas in InAs nanowires are found when the chemical potential mu and energy levels E-(N,E-L) satisfy the following relation mu< E (N,L), mu = E-(N,E-L), and mu > E-(N,E-L). It has been established that the concentration, density of thermodynamic states, entropy and heat capacity of the electron gas at resonance points (when mu = E-(N,E-L)) do not depend on the energy level E-(N,E-L). It is shown that the entropy and density of thermodynamic states reach their peak values at resonance points, while the heat capacity is around the resonance point