| Abstract Note | This book presents the physics of semiconductor nanostructures with emphasis on their electronic transport properties. At its heart are five fundamental transport phenomena: quantized conductance, tunneling transport, the Aharonov–Bohm effect, the quantum Hall effect, and the Coulomb blockade effect. The book starts out with basics of solid state and semiconductor physics, such as crystal structure, band structure, and effective mass approximation, including spin-orbit interaction effects important for research in semiconductor spintronics. It deals with material aspects such as band engineering, doping, gating, and a selection of nanostructure fabrication techniques. The book discusses the Drude–Boltzmann–Sommerfeld transport theory as well as conductance quantization and the Landauer–Büttiker theory. These concepts are extended to mesoscopic interference phenomena and decoherence, magnetotransport, and interaction effects in quantum-confined systems, guiding the reader from fundamental effects to specialized state-of-the-art experiments. |