Tight-binding study of the influence of the strain on the electronic properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Abstract

We present an atomistic investigation of the influence of strain on the electronic properties of quantum dots (QD's) within the empirical $s{p}^3{s}^{\ast }$ tight-binding (ETB) model with interactions up to 2nd nearest neighbors and spin-orbit coupling. Results for the model system of capped pyramid-shaped InAs QD's in GaAs, with supercells containing $10^5$ atoms are presented and compared with previous empirical pseudopotential results. The good agreement shows that ETB is a reliable alternative for an atomistic treatment. The strain is incorporated through the atomistic valence force field model. The ETB treatment allows for the effects of bond length and bond angle deviations from the ideal InAs and GaAs zincblende structure to be selectively removed from the electronic-structure calculation, giving quantitative information on the importance of strain effects on the bound state energies and on the physical origin of the spatial elongation of the wave functions. Effects of dot-dot coupling have also been examined to determine the relative weight of both strain field and wave function overlap.

22 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (in press) In the latest version, added Figs. 3 and 4, modified Fig. 5, Tables I and II,.and added new references

References in corpus (7)

• Ab initio pseudopotentials for electronic structure calculations of poly-atomic systems using density-functional theory
• Eight-band calculations of strained InAs/GaAs quantum dots compared with one, four, and six-band approximations
• Comparison of two methods for describing the strain profiles in quantum dots
• Theoretical interpretation of the experimental electronic structure of lens shaped, self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots
• The influence of surface stress on the equilibrium shape of strained quantum dots
• Electron-hole correlations in semiconductor quantum dots with tight-binding wave functions
• Quantum wires from coupled InAs/GaAs strained quantum dots

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Excitons, biexcitons and trions in self-assembled (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots: Recombination energies, polarization and radiative lifetimes versus dot height
• Effect of wetting layers on the strain and electronic structure of InAs self-assembled quantum dots
• Biexciton recombination rates in self-assembled quantum dots
• Tight-Binding model for semiconductor nanostructures
• A comparison of atomistic and continuum theoretical approaches to determine electronic properties of GaN/AlN quantum dots
• Dependence of the electronic structure of self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots on height and composition
• Optical properties of self-organized wurtzite InN/GaN quantum dots: A combined atomistic tight-binding and full configuration interaction calculation
• Atomistic theory of electronic and optical properties of InAs/InP self-assembled quantum dots on patterned substrates
• Linear scaling approach for atomistic calculation of excitonic properties of 10-million-atom nanostructures
• Quantum-Confined Stark Effect in polar and nonpolar Wurtzite InN/GaN Heterostructures: Influence on Electronic Structure and Compensation by Coulomb Attraction
• Multiband tight-binding theory of disordered ABC semiconductor quantum dots: Application to the optical properties of alloyed CdZnSe nanocrystals
• Multiband effective bond-orbital model for nitride semiconductors with wurtzite structure
• Temperature Dependent Empirical Pseudopotential Theory For Self-Assembled Quantum Dots
• The importance of second order deformation potentials in modeling of InAs/GaAs nanostructures
• Atomistic calculation of the thermoelectric properties of Si nanowires
• Development of simulation package 'ELSES' for extra-large-scale electronic-structure calculation
• Wurtzite/Zincblende Crystal Phase GaAs Heterostructures in the Tight Binding Approximation