Electronic structure of cleaved-edge-overgrowth strain-induced quantum wires

The electronic properties of strained cleaved-edge-overgrowth quantum wires are calculated for structures in which the (001) quantum well has a larger lattice constant and band gap than the barrier and imposes tensile strain on the (110) quantum well. The lateral charge-carrier confinement is entirely due to strain effects and not due to heterostructure barriers. Large localization energies of up to 90 meV are predicted from eight band $\mathbf{k}\cdot \mathbf{p}$ calculations. Symmetric, asymmetric, and interdiffused geometries in the ${\mathrm{In}}_{0.2}{\mathrm{Al}}_{0.8}{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{A}\mathrm{l}}_{0.35}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.65}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{G}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}$ system are investigated.