Theoretical study of strained thin quantum wells grown on vicinal surfaces

We introduce a variational method to solve the Schrödinger equation in the effective mass approach for any arbitrary two-dimensional periodic potential V(x,y). Afterwards, we use the method to study the electronic structure of very thin ${\mathrm{In}}_{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{-}\mathit{x}}$As/GaAs strained quantum wells grown on vicinal surfaces. We compare their energy levels with the ones calculated for similar quantum wells but grown on nominal surfaces and analyze the different parameters (tilt angle, In diffusion, strain inhomogeneity, quantum-well thickness, step height) which control the blueshift of the electronic transitions experimentally found. Our work supports that the inhomogeneous distribution of stresses is of paramount importance in determining those shifts.