Quantum confinement and electronic properties of silicon nanowires

The structural, electronic and optical properties of hydrogen-passivated silicon nanowires were investigated. The orientation and size dependence of the band gap was also investigated and the local-density gap was corrected with the GW approximations. It was found that the quantum confinement becomes significant for d < 2.2 nm. It was also observed that the dielectric function exhibits strong anisotropy and low-energy absorption peaks starts to appear in the imaginary part of the dielectric function for polarization.