Past exam of the MPhil in micro- and nanotechnology enterprise course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / Paper 2 / Section A(ii) / 15 / i / Solution

Let $x$ run along the wire and $y$ across it. In a separable approximation,Transverse confinement gives discrete levels $E_n^{\perp }$, but the long unconfined direction has a nearly continuous longitudinal wave vector and a plane-wave factor. The result is a family of one-dimensional subbands, not a completely discrete spectrum in both in-plane directions. For a hard-wall width $W$, $E_n^{\perp }={\hslash }^2{\pi }^2{n}^2/(2m^{\ast }{W}^2)$; an electrostatic confinement potential gives different thresholds. The suppressed out-of-plane degree of freedom is already frozen into the 2DEG subband.