Optical Properties of Confined Si Structures

The optical properties of bulk silicon are deeply modified if the material is manipulated at the nanometre scale. In particular the growth of Si nanostructures constitutes today a promising approach for the development of silicon-based light emitting devices. In this context I discuss theoretical results on the optoelectronic properties of low-dimensional silicon structures, e.g. Si quantum wells, quantum wires, quantum dots. The results are compared with recent experimental data.