Giant growth-plane optical anisotropy in wurtzite InN/GaN disk-in-wire structures

Using a combination of valence force-field molecular mechanics, 20-band sp³d⁵s^∗ atomistic tight-binding approach, and appropriate post-processing tools, we have studied the origin and nature of optical polarization anisotropy in semiconducting GaN/InN/GaN disk-in-wire structures having wurtzite crystal symmetry and varying InN disk thicknesses. True atomistic symmetry due to the presence of strong internal fields, coupled with quantum mechanical size quantization effects, results in unconventional characteristics in the electronic structure related to non-degeneracy in the excited P states and rotation (symmetry lowering) in the wavefunctions. The optical polarization ratio projected on the XY (growth) plane and, in particular, the transition rates have been shown to be strongly dependent on the crystal internal fields and the thickness of the InN disk.