Talk:Artificial atom

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Artificial atoms refer to a whole class of systems that behave like atoms in the sense of discrete energy levels, not just quantum dots. Large metal objects that respond in peculiar ways to microwave radiation, for example, are called artificial atoms as well. Anyway, I must sound like a loony without any references, but if I have time I'll come back with some. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.105.207.198 (talk) 22:19, 9 December 2007 (UTC)


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I put back the previous quote as it is nonsense to state that quantum wells are "artificial atoms" but not-quantum dots. If articial atoms are nanostructures that have discrete energy levels, then quantum dots have this property. In quantum wells, the electron wavefunction is only confined in one dimension, so there is a continuum of energy levels. For this reason, I do not think that quantum wells can be called artificial atoms. We perhaps could refer to the quantum dot section which states that "they are sometimes called 'artificial atoms'" to further clarifiy the issue.

It is true that some scientists may think that quantum dots exhibit properties that differ from real atoms, so the term "artificial atom" is maybe misused but it is a widespread word in the quantum dot community.