in the case of the quantum well the masses are different on either side of the boundary. Instead, the second boundary condition is chosen to conserve particle flux as , which is consistent with experiment. The solution to the finite well particle in a box must be solved numerically, resulting in wave functions that are sine functions inside the quantum well and exponentially decaying functions in the barriers. This quantization of the energy levels of the electrons allows a quantum well laser to emit light more efficiently than conventional semiconductor lasers. Due to their small size, quantum dots do not showcase the bulk properties of the specified semi-conductor but rather show quantised energy states. This effect is known as the quantum confinement and has led to numerous applications of quantum dots such as the quantum well laser. Researchers at Princeton University have recently built a quantum well laser which is no bigger than a grain of rice. The laser is powered by a single electron which passes through two quantum dots; a double quantum dot. The electron moves from a state of higher energy, to a state of lower energy whilst emitting photons in the microwave region. These photons bounce off mirrors to create a beam of light; the laser. The quantum well laser is heavily based on the interaction between light and electrons. This relationship is a key component in quantum mechanical theories which include the De Broglie Wavelength and Particle in a box. The double quantum dot allows scientists to gain full control over the movement of an electron which consequently results in the production of a laser beam. Quantum dots Quantum dots are extremely small semiconductors (on the scale of nanometers). They display quantum confinement in that the electrons cannot escape the “dot”, thus allowing particle-in-a-box approximations to be used. Their behavior can be described by three-dimensional particle-in-a-box energy quantization equations. The energy gap of a quantum dot is the energy gap between its valence and conduction bands. This energy gap is equal to the gap of the bulk material plus the energy equation derived particle-in-a-box, which gives the energy for electrons and holes. This can be seen in the following equation, where and are the effective masses of the electron and hole, is radius of the dot, and is Planck's constant: Hence, the energy gap of the quantum dot is inversely proportional to the square of