Electronic and optical properties of ordered porous germanium

The electronic band structure and dielectric function of ordered porous Ge are studied by means of a sp³s^* tight-binding supercell model, in which periodical pores are produced by removing columns of atoms along [0 0 1] direction from a crystalline Ge structure and the pore surfaces are passivated by hydrogen atoms. The tight-binding results are compared with ab-initio calculations performed in small supercell systems. Due to the existence of periodicity in these systems, all the electron states are delocalized. However, the results of both electronic band structure and dielectric function show clear quantum confinement effects.