Application of pseudopotential theory to magnetic semiconductor heterostructures

The results of empirical pseudopotential calculations for the semiconductor compound Cd_1 − xMn_xTe are presented. The effective electron and hole masses obtained from the pseudopotential calculations are then employed in an envelope function approximation, using two different effective mass Hamiltonians to evaluate the transition energies of the excitonic ground state in CdTe– Cd_1 − xMn_xTe quantum wells of variable width. It is shown that in non-magnetic systems it is not possible to utilize exciton energies alone to either distinguish between different model Hamiltonians or to quantify the interface roughness. However, it is shown that the latter can be quantified in magnetic systems via the resulting Zeeman effect.