Edge strain relaxation in quantum wells grown on the cleaved edge of a strained semiconductor superlattice

In this Brief Report we address, from a theoretical point of view, the question of the existence and the localization of strain-induced quantum wires when one deposits a strained quantum well on the cleaved edge of a strained superlattice (such as a CdTe quantum well on the cleaved edge of a CdTe/${\mathrm{Cd}}_{\mathrm{x}}$${\mathrm{Zn}}_{1\mathrm{-}\mathrm{x}}$Te superlattice). For systems in which ternary layers are made of perfectly homogeneous composition alloys, and with no width fluctuation, we show a very strong decay of the strain modulation versus the distance to the cleavage interface. We also demonstrate a strong strain relaxation near the edge of the structure.