Semiconductors: A Class of Large Molecules.

This review and tutorial manuscript will be published in Accounts of Chemical Research. It is intended for chemists without training in solid state physics, and stresses the underlying chemical nature of semi- conductors. The electronic structure of one, two, and three dimensional quantum size effects is described, using the language of polymerization. Synthetic methods are briefly described, and a simple molecular orbital model for discrete electronic structure in quantum dots is presented. The model is compared with experimental spectroscopic results, and unresolved issues in the areas of surface states and electron-phonon coupling are discussed.