The effects of indium segregation on exciton binding energy and oscillator strength in GaInAs/GaAs quantum wells

We solve analytically the Schrödinger equation taking into account the shape changes of GaInAs/GaAs quantum wells due to indium segregation during the MBE growth by using transfer matrix method. The indium compositional profiles of the quantum wells are provided using the phenomenological model. The fundamental transition energy, binding energy and oscillator strength of excitons as a function of indium segregation coefficient R$R$ and well width are studied. For narrow wells (less than 40 ML), the exciton binding energy and oscillator strength decrease, but for wide wells (larger than 40 ML), increase with increasing the segregation coefficient R$R$. It is shown that indium segregation degrades the optical properties and results in a blue-shift of exciton transition energy in GaInAs/GaAs quantum wells.     

Combined effects of magnetic and electric fields on the interband optical transitions in InAs/InP quantum wire

Combined effects of magnetic and electric fields on the confined exciton in an InAs_1−xP_x/InP (x=0.2) quantum well wire are investigated taking into account the geometrical confinement effect. Variational formulism, within the frame work of effective mass approximation, is applied to obtain the exciton binding energy. The second order harmonic generation and the optical gain are carried out using compact density method. The strain effects are included with the confinement potential in the Hamiltonian. The energy difference of the ground and the first excited state is found in the presence of magnetic and electric fields taking into the consideration of spatial confinement effect. The result shows that the optical properties are more influenced taking into account the effects of geometrical confinement, magnetic field and electric field. It is shown that the telecommunication wavelength can be achieved with the suitable doping barrier material with the wire material and the external perturbations.     

Shape effects on the electronic structure and the optical gain of InAsN/GaAs nanostructures: From a quantum lens to a quantum ring

The electronic structures of self-assembled InAs_1−xN_x/GaAs nanostructures from quantum lens to quantum rings (QRs) are calculated using the 10-band k.p method and the valence force field (VFF) method. With the variation of shape of the nanostructure and nitrogen (N) content, it shows that the N and the strains can significantly affect the energy levels especially the conduction band because the N resonant state has repulsion interaction with the conduction band due to the band anticrossing (BAC). The structures with N and greater height have smaller transition energy, and the structures with N have greater optical gain due to its overwhelming greater value of factor _fc+_fv−1$f_{\text{c}}+f_{\text{v}}-1$. After analyzing the shape effect, we suggested that the nanostructures with volcano shape are preferred because the maximum optical gain occurs for quantum volcano. With our simulation result, researchers could select quantum dots (QDs) structures to design laser with better performance.     

Polaron effects on the optical refractive index changes in asymmetrical quantum wells

The optical refractive index changes considering polaron effects in asymmetrical quantum wells are theoretically studied. It is shown that a pronounced optical refractive index changes dependence of the quantum well parameters can be obtained. Moreover, the theoretical values of the optical refractive index changes obviously increase when considering the electron-LO-phonon interaction.     

Hydrostatic pressure effects on impurity states in GaAs/AlAs quantum wells

Within the framework of effective-mass approximation, we have studied the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the binding energy of a shallow donor impurity in an infinite quantum well by means of a variational method. It is found that the first derivative of the binding energy and energy shift is reliable parameter for describing the structure.     

A study of the ultrafast optical response of magnetized GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire structures

We have studied analytically the ultrafast optical response of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire subjected to a moderately strong transverse magnetic field. The energy dispersion relations have been numerically calculated and show a significant deviation from parabolic behaviour as the magnetic field is increased. The effective semiconductor Bloch equation technique is used to calculate the induced polarization and differential transmission spectra in the quantum wire. The calculated induced polarization is used to study the optical coherent transient phenomenon of optical nutation. The analysis demonstrates that the magnetic field effectively alters the optical response of the semiconductor quantum wire nanostructures. It is observed that the nutating signal frequency enhances with an increasing magnetic field. The results are useful to explain magnetic field effects on the transient optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures.     

Effects of hydrostatic pressure and temperature on the nonlinear optical properties of semiparabolic plus semi-inverse squared quantum wells

In this study, the effects of hydrostatic pressure and temperature on nonlinear optical rectification(OR), second-harmonic generation(SHG), third-harmonic generation(THG) and the linear,nonlinear, and total optical absorption coefficients(OACs) of a semiparabolic plus semi-inverse squared quantum well(QW) are theoretically investigated. The results show that hydrostatic pressure and temperature have significant effects on the optical properties of semiparabolic plus semi-inverse squared QWs, and that the energy levels and magnitudes of the resonant peaks of OR, SHG, THG, and the total OACs vary according to the shape of the limiting potential, the hydrostatic pressure, and the temperature. It is easily seen that the peak positions of the resonant peaks of OR, SHG, THG, and the total OACs in the semiparabolic plus semi-inverse squared QW show a red shift with increasing hydrostatic pressure, but a blue shift with increasing temperature. Therefore, the magnitude and position of the resonant peaks of OR, SHG, THG,and the total OACs can be adjusted by changing the hydrostatic pressure and the temperature,which promise a new degree of freedom in the tunability of various electro-optical devices.     

Electronic structure and optical gain of InAsPN/GaP(N) quantum dots

The electronic structure and optical gain of InAsPN/GaP(N) quantum dots (QDs) are investigated in the framework of the effective-mass envelope function theory. The strain distribution is calculated using the valence force field (VFF) method. With GaP barrier, for smaller InAsPN QDs, the minimum transition energy may occur at a lower phosphorous (P) composition, but for larger QDs, the transition energy increases as P composition increases due to the increased bandgap of alloy QDs. When the nitrogen (N) composition increases, the transition energy decreases due to the stronger repulsion between the conduction band (CB) and the N resonant band, and the transition matrix element (TME) is more affected by the transition energy rather than N–CB mixing. To obtain laser materials with a lattice constant comparable to Si, we incorporated 2% of N into the GaP barrier. With this GaP_0.98N_0.02 barrier, the conduction band offset is reduced, so the quantum confinement is lower, resulting in a smaller transition energy and longer wavelength. At the same time, the TME is reduced and the optical gain is less than those without N in the barrier at a low carrier density, but the peak gain increases faster when the carrier density increases. Finally it can surpass and reach a greater saturation optical gain than those without N in the barrier. This shows that incorporating N into GaP barriers is an effective way to achieve desirable wavelength and optical gain.     

Exciton effects on the refractive index and optical absorption in wurtzite quantum wells via a fractional-dimensional space approach

The optical refractive index changes and absorption coefficients of quantum wells (QWs) are theoretically investigated with considering exciton effects within the framework of the fractional-dimensional space approach. The exciton wave functions and bound energies are obtained as a function of spatial dimensionality, and the dimension increases with the well width increasing. Then optical properties are obtained by using the compact-density matrix approach and an iterative method. Numerical results are presented for wurtzite ZnO/Mg_xZn_1−xO QWs. The calculated results show that the changes of refractive index and absorption coefficients are greatly enhanced due to the quantum confinement of exciton. And the smaller the QW width (dimension) is, the larger influence of exciton on the optical properties will be. Furthermore, the exciton effects make the resonant peaks move to a lower energy. In addition, the optical properties are related to the QW width, the incident optical intensity and carrier density.     

Band structure and impurity effects on optical properties of quantum well and quantum dot infrared photodetectors

We examined theoretically band structure and discrete dopant effects in the quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) and the quantum dot infrared photodetector (QDIP). We find that in QWIPs discrete dopant effects can induce long wavelength infrared absorption through impurity assisted intra-subband optical transitions. In QDIPs, we find that a strategically placed dopant atom in a quantum dot can easily destroy the symmetry and modify the selection rule. This mechanism could be partially responsible for normal incidence absorption observed in low-aspect-ratio quantum dots.     

Energy band modulation of GaAs/Al0.26Ga0.74As quantum well in 3D self-assembled nanomembranes

In this study, we investigate the modulation of energy band in 3D self-assembled nanomembranes containing GaAs/Al_0.26Ga_0.74As quantum wells (QWs). Photoluminescence (PL) characterizations demonstrate that the self-assembled structures have different optical transition properties and the modulation of the energy band is thus realized. Detailed spectral analyses disclose that the small strain change in structures with different curvatures cannot cause remarkable change in energy bands in Al_0.26Ga_0.74As layer. On the other hand, the optical transitions of GaAs QW layer is influenced by the strain evolution in term of light emission intensity. We also find the first order Stark effect in rolled-up nanomembrane with diameter of 150 μm, which is closely connected with the coupling effect between the deformation potential and the piezoelectric potential. Our work may pave a way for the fabrication of high performance rolled-QW infrared photo-detectors.     

Electric field effects on the linear and nonlinear intersubband optical properties of double semi-parabolic quantum wells

In this work, the effects of the electric field on the optical properties of the symmetric and asymmetric double semi-parabolic quantum wells (DSPQWs) are investigated numerically for typical GaAs/Al_xGa_1−xAs. Optical properties are obtained using the compact density matrix approach. Our calculations for the asymmetric DSPQW show that the resonant peak values of the total refractive index change and total optical absorption coefficient are maximum for a certain value of the applied electric field, due to the anti-crossing effect. However, for the symmetric DSPQW, the resonant peak values of these optical properties decrease monotonically with increasing the applied electric field. Also, our results indicate that a larger value of the optical rectification coefficient of the symmetric DSPQW can be induced by applying a small electric field.     

Intense laser effects on nonlinear optical absorption and optical rectification in single quantum wells under applied electric and magnetic field

In this work the effects of intense laser on the electron-related nonlinear optical absorption and nonlinear optical rectification in GaAs-Ga_1−xAl_xAs quantum wells are studied under, applied electric and magnetic field. The electric field is applied along the growth direction of the quantum well whereas the magnetic field has been considered to be in-plane. The calculations were performed within the density matrix formalism with the use of the effective mass and parabolic band approximations. The intense laser effects are included through the Floquet method, by modifying the confining potential associated to the heterostructure. Results are presented for the nonlinear optical absorption, the nonlinear optical rectification and the resonant peak of these two optical processes. Several configurations of the dimensions of the quantum well, the applied electric and magnetic fields, and the incident intense laser radiation have been considered. The outcome of the calculation suggests that the nonlinear optical absorption and optical rectification are non-monotonic functions of the dimensions of the heterostructure and of the external perturbations considered in this work.     

Interface-related effects on confined excitons in GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs single quantum wells

Confined excitons in non-abrupt GaAs/Al_xGa_1−xAs single quantum wells are studied. The graded interfaces are described taking into account fluctuations in their thickness a and positioning with respect to the abrupt interface picture. Numerical results for confined (0,0),(1,1) and (0,2) excitons in GaAs/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As quantum wells show that while the interfacial fluctuations produce small changes (<0.5 meV) in the exciton binding energies, the confined exciton energies can be red- or blue-shifted as much as 25 meV for wells with mean width of 50 Å and 2 ML wide interfaces.     

Size dependent effective band gap,optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes in a wide ZnS/Zn1−xMgxS strained quantum well

Exciton binding energy of a confined heavy hole exciton is investigated in a Zn_1−xMg_xS/ZnS/Zn_1−xMg_xS single strained quantum well with the inclusion of size dependent dielectric function for various Mg content. The effects of interaction between the exciton and the longitudinal optical phonon are brought out. The effect of exciton is described by the effective potential between the electron and hole. The interband emission energy as a function of well width is calculated for various Mg concentration with and without the inclusion of dielectric confinement. Non-linear optical properties are carried out using the compact density matrix approach. The dependence of nonlinear optical processes on the well width is investigated for different Mg concentration. The linear, third order non-linear optical absorption coefficients values and the refractive index changes of the exciton are calculated for different concentration of magnesium content. The results show that the exciton binding energy is found to exceed LO phonon energy of ZnS for x>0.2 and the incorporation of magnesium ions and the effect of phonon have great influence on the optical properties of ZnS/Zn_1−xMg_xS quantum wells.     

Internal electric fields due to piezoelectric and spontaneous polarizations in CdZnO/MgZnO quantum well with various applied electric field effects

The strain-induced piezoelectric polarization and the spontaneous polarization can be reduced effectively using the applied electric field in the CdZnO/ZnMgO quantum well (QW) structure with high Cd composition. That is, optical properties as a function of internal and external fields in the CdZnO/ZnMgO QW with various applied electric field result in the increased optical gain due to the fact that the QW potential profile is flattened as a result of the compensation of the internal field by the reverse field as confirmed. These results demonstrate that a high-performance optical device operation can be realized in CdZnO/MgZnO QW structures by reducing the droop phenomenon.     

Optical characterization of InGaAsN/GaAsN/GaAs quantum wells with InGaP cladding layers

Optical properties of InGaAsN/GaAs and InGaAsN/GaAsN/GaAs quantum well structures with InGaP cladding layers were studied by photoreflectance at various temperatures. The excitonic interband transitions of the InGaAsN/GaAsN/GaAs QW systems were observed in the spectral range above hν=E_g(InGaAsN). The confinement potential of the system with strain compensating GaAsN barriers became one step broader, thus more quantum states and larger optical transition rate were observed. A matrix transfer algorithm was used to calculate the subband energies numerically. Band gap energies, effective masses were adopted from the band anti-crossing model with band-offset values adjusted to obtain the subband energies to best fit the observed optical transition features. A spectral feature below and near the GaAs band gap energy from GaAs barriers is enhanced by the GaAs/InGaP interface space charge accumulation induced internal field.     

Impact of Al interdiffusion on optical properties in GaSb/AlGaSb multiple quantum wells

We have studied the effect of the Al interdiffusion on the electronic states of AlGaSb–GaSb quantum wells. Measuring the interdiffusion lengths by means of highly depth-resolved secondary ion mass spectrometry we find that the effect of Al diffusion results in the transformation of the ternary–binary system in a ternary–ternary structure. The modified energy levels, calculated on the basis of the measured chemical profile using a Pösch–Teller potential, are consistent with the blue shifts of the PL peaks measured in samples grown with increasing growth temperature.