The valence band energy spectrum of HgTe quantum wells with inverted band structures

Abstract

The energy spectrum of the valence band in HgTe/Cd${}_x$Hg${}_{1-x}$Te quantum wells with a width $(8-20)$~nm has been studied experimentally by magnetotransport effects and theoretically in framework $4$-bands $kP$-method. Comparison of the Hall density with the density found from period of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations clearly shows that the degeneracy of states of the top of the valence band is equal to 2 at the hole density $p<5.5\times 10^{11}$~cm${}^{-2}$. Such degeneracy does not agree with the calculations of the spectrum performed within the framework of the $4$-bands $kP$-method for symmetric quantum wells. These calculations show that the top of the valence band consists of four spin-degenerate extremes located at $k\ne 0$ (valleys) which gives the total degeneracy $K=8$. It is shown that taking into account the "mixing of states" at the interfaces leads to the removal of the spin degeneracy that reduces the degeneracy to $K=4$. Accounting for any additional asymmetry, for example, due to the difference in the mixing parameters at the interfaces, the different broadening of the boundaries of the well, etc, leads to reduction of the valleys degeneracy, making $K=2$. It is noteworthy that for our case two-fold degeneracy occurs due to degeneracy of two single-spin valleys. The hole effective mass ($m_h$) determined from analysis of the temperature dependence of the amplitude of the SdH oscillations show that $m_h$ is equal to $(0.25\pm 0.02)m_0$ and weakly increases with the hole density. Such a value of $m_h$ and its dependence on the hole density are in a good agreement with the calculated effective mass.

arXiv comment8 pages, 11 figures

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• Aniotropy of in-plane g-factor of electrons in HgTe quantum wells
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• Spin-orbit splitting of the conduction band in HgTe quantum wells: role of different mechanisms
• Scattering anisotropy in HgTe (013) quantum well
• Density of states measurements for heavy subband of holes in HgTe quantum wells
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• Energy spectrum of valence band in HgTe quantum wells on the way from a two to the three dimensional topological insulator