Abstract
The one- and two-electron ground-state energies of a silicon sphere embedded in an amorphous silicon dioxide matrix are calculated as a function of the sphere size. The electron-electron interaction and polarization effects are treated by perturbation; our quantum-mechanical calculation is valid for small spheres with radii between 10 and 40 Å. For large spheres, classical electrostatics is used. A universal effective capacitance is defined in terms of the difference in the ground-state energies of the (n+1)- and n-electron cases, which agrees with the usual concept of capacitance in the classical limit.
- Received 30 October 1991
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.45.14150
©1992 American Physical Society