Graduation Semester and Year
Spring 2026
Language
English
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Department
Electrical Engineering
First Advisor
Kambiz Alavi
Second Advisor
Farhad Kamangar
Third Advisor
Rasool Kenarangui
Fourth Advisor
Robert Magnusson
Abstract
The Quantum-Well User Entered Simulation Tool (QUEST), originally developed at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2005, is a simulation program built in MATLAB for computing energy eigenvalues and wavefunctions in user-defined semiconductor quantum well structures. This thesis presents a new revision and extension of QUEST with three primary contributions: compatibility updates to the existing MATLAB codebase, intersubband absorption modelling, and a redesigned graphical user interface for ease-of-use in testing.
The modernization effort for this program addresses incompatibilities introduced by changes to the MATLAB runtime environment since QUEST’s original release in 2005, including corrections to the self-consistent Schrödinger-Poisson solver and updates to deprecated graphical interface functions. All existing simulation models are verified to reproduce the benchmark results established in the original work within an acceptable margin of error.
The most significant addition of this thesis is the simulation of intersubband absorption spectra and the Quantum-Confined Stark Effect (QCSE) in coupled quantum well structures. The graphical user interface is updated to support these extended simulation workflows, with improvements to the well input dialog and output display. There is also an additional superlattice functionality that is placed in the appendices of this thesis.
Together, these contributions establish QUEST as a practical pre-fabrication simulation environment for intersubband device design, linking quantum mechanical modelling directly to measurable device characteristics.
Keywords
Quantum wells, MATLAB, Wavefunctions, Absorption, Simulation
Disciplines
Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Nur, Mohamed, "Application of MATLAB Simulation for Quantum Wells and Absorption Modelling" (2026). Electrical Engineering Theses. 2.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/electricaleng_theses2/2