Modeling of Semiconductor Nanostructures with nextnano$\text{}^{3}$

nextnano$\text{}^{3}$ is a simulation tool that aims at providing global insight into the basic physical properties of realistic three-dimensional mesoscopic semiconductor structures. It focuses on quantum mechanical properties such as the global electronic structure, optical properties, and the effects of electric and magnetic fields for virtually any geometry and combination of semiconducting materials. For the calculation of the carrier dynamics a drift-diffusion model based on a quantum-mechanically calculated density is employed. In this paper we present an overview of the capabilities of nextnano$\text{}^{3}$ and discuss some of the main equations that are implemented into the code. As examples, we first discuss the strain tensor components and the piezoelectric effect associated with a compressively strained InAs layer for different growth directions, secondly, we calculate self-consistently the quantum mechanical electron density of a Double Gate MOSFET, then we compare the intersubband transitions in a multi-quantum well structure that have been obtained with a single-band effective mass approach and with an 8-band k·p model, and finally, we calculate the energy spectrum of a structure in a uniform magnetic field.