Fermi Energy and Electron Thermopower in Quantum Films of an Asymmetric Profile

Abstract

The behavior of the Fermi energy and the electron thermoelectric power in an asymmetric quantum well of the Morse potential type as a function of electron concentration are studied. It is shown that the Fermi energy is a piecewise-linear function, and the electron thermoelectric power is an oscillating function. The analysis shows that the nature of these oscillations differs significantly from that in films of a parabolic and rectangular profile, namely, the oscillation period is a nonmonotonic function and reaches a maximum at some value of the electron concentration. The possibility of estimating the parameters of the film profile (quantum well) is proposed. A comparison with the experiment shows a qualitative agreement.