Abstract
We report on a method to calculate the band diagram of quantum wells using a 30-band Hamiltonian. The subbands are calculated over the entire Brillouin zone. Such an approach is useful not only for a valence band description but also for a conduction band description when the energy minimum is not located at the center of the Brillouin zone as is the case for Si, SiGe, and Ge. The method also provides information about confinement in or valleys for III-V heterostructures. Such a formalism is useful for both optical calculation and for transport modeling. As an illustration, the scattering rates for holes confined in a quantum well are calculated. The accurate density of states provided by the 30-band method gives access to very different scattering rates as compared with those obtained following an effective mass approach.
5 More- Received 26 April 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.245316
©2005 American Physical Society