We present a comprehensive, up-to-date compilation of band parameters for the technologically important III–V zinc blende and wurtzite compound semiconductors: GaAs, GaSb, GaP, GaN, AlAs, AlSb, AlP, AlN, InAs, InSb, InP, and InN, along with their ternary and quaternary alloys. Based on a review of the existing literature, complete and consistent parameter sets are given for all materials. Emphasizing the quantities required for band structure calculations, we tabulate the direct and indirect energy gaps, spin-orbit, and crystal-field splittings, alloy bowing parameters, effective masses for electrons, heavy, light, and split-off holes, Luttinger parameters, interband momentum matrix elements, and deformation potentials, including temperature and alloy-composition dependences where available. Heterostructure band offsets are also given, on an absolute scale that allows any material to be aligned relative to any other.

Band parameters for III–V compound semiconductors and their alloys

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) has been observed in a dilute gas of sodium atoms. A Bose-Einstein condensate consists of a macroscopic population of the ground state of the system, and is a coherent state of matter. In an ideal gas, this phase transition is purely quantum-statistical. The study of BEC in weakly interacting systems which can be controlled and observed with precision holds the promise of revealing new macroscopic quantum phenomena that can be understood from first principles.

Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas of sodium atoms

First-principles calculations have evolved from mere aids in explaining and supporting experiments to powerful tools for predicting new materials and their properties. In the first part of this review we describe the state-of-the-art computational methodology for calculating the structure and energetics of point defects and impurities in semiconductors. We will pay particular attention to computational aspects which are unique to defects or impurities, such as how to deal with charge states and how to describe and interpret transition levels. In the second part of the review we will illustrate these capabilities with examples for defects and impurities in nitride semiconductors. Point defects have traditionally been considered to play a major role in wide-band-gap semiconductors, and first-principles calculations have been particularly helpful in elucidating the issues. Specifically, calculations have shown that the unintentional n-type conductivity that has often been observed in as-grown GaN cannot be a...

First-principles calculations for defects and impurities: Applications to III-nitrides

We present a comprehensive and up-to-date compilation of band parameters for all of the nitrogen-containing III–V semiconductors that have been investigated to date. The two main classes are: (1) “conventional” nitrides (wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN, InN, and AlN, along with their alloys) and (2) “dilute” nitrides (zinc-blende ternaries and quaternaries in which a relatively small fraction of N is added to a host III–V material, e.g., GaAsN and GaInAsN). As in our more general review of III–V semiconductor band parameters [I. Vurgaftman et al., J. Appl. Phys. 89, 5815 (2001)], complete and consistent parameter sets are recommended on the basis of a thorough and critical review of the existing literature. We tabulate the direct and indirect energy gaps, spin-orbit and crystal-field splittings, alloy bowing parameters, electron and hole effective masses, deformation potentials, elastic constants, piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization coefficients, as well as heterostructure band offsets. Temperature an...

Band parameters for nitrogen-containing semiconductors

Physical Review B

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

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Picosecond Time-Resolved Cathodoluminescence to Probe Exciton Dynamics in α-Plane (Al,Ga)N/GaN Quantum Wells

Time-resolved photoluminescence experiments at varying temperature are performed on a series of InxGa1−xN/GaN quantum well and quantum box samples of similar compositions (0.15 < x < 0.20). The results are analyzed by using envelope-function calculations of transition energies and oscillator strengths, accounting for internal electric fields. The respective influences of localization and electric fields on radiative and nonradiative lifetimes and on the Stokes shift are deduced. The results indicate that the spatial extension of localization centers is much smaller than the size of the quantum boxes (∼10 × 3 nm, typically). The room-temperature radiative efficiency of both quantum well and quantum box samples is enhanced by replacing the topmost GaN barrier by an AlGaN one.

Recombination Dynamics in Nitride Quantum Boxes and Quantum Wells for Colors Ranging from the UV to the Red.

The growth of low-dimensional nitrides by molecular beam epitaxy

Molecular beam epitaxy of group-III nitrides

We study wurtzite GaN/AIN quantum dots (QDs) by time-resolved photoluminescence. The properties of nitride based nano-objects are significantly affected by strong built-in electric fields existing in this crystalline phase. These fields induce a spatial separation of electrons and holes in the quantum dot, a Stark shift of the transition energy, and they slow their radiative recombination down to tens of microseconds of decay time for the largest quantum dots. Such long decay times are responsible for the screening of internal fields by using moderate excitation intensities, thus modifying drastically both the energy and the rate of photon emission. Consequently it is difficult to perform spectroscopic studies of these QDs in the regime where a single electron-hole (e-h) pair is present at the most in each dot. Using a pulsed laser excitation, we study the time-resolved dynamics of carrier recombinations, waiting for complete recombination of all electron-hole pairs in the dots. We clearly exhibit the conditions where no screening of the internal electric field occurs. We especially obtain the transition energy and the mono-exponential decay, i.e the radiative recombination time, of the last e-h pair present in the dot, for a wide range of QD sizes. These results are analyzed within an envelope function model for the electron and hole confinement. The effective electric field, averaged over the strain distribution in the dots, is determined to be of 9.0 +/- 0.5 MV/cm.

Nicolas Grandjean

Papers

Picosecond Time-Resolved Cathodoluminescence to Probe Exciton Dynamics in α-Plane (Al,Ga)N/GaN Quantum Wells

Recombination Dynamics in Nitride Quantum Boxes and Quantum Wells for Colors Ranging from the UV to the Red.

The growth of low-dimensional nitrides by molecular beam epitaxy

Molecular beam epitaxy of group-III nitrides

Radiative lifetime in wurtzite GaN/AlN quantum dots.