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Electronic Structures of Wide Band-Gap (AlN)m (GaN)n [001] Superlattices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Z.-J. Tian ,
M.W.C. Dharma-Wardana  and
L.J. Lewis
Z.-J. Tian
Affiliation:
Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R6 Département de physique et Groupe de recherche en physique et technologie des couches minces (GCM), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada HSC 3J7
M.W.C. Dharma-Wardana*
Affiliation:
Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R6
L.J. Lewis
Affiliation:
Département de physique et Groupe de recherche en physique et technologie des couches minces (GCM), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada HSC 3J7
*
† To whom correspondence should be addressed, E-mail: chandre@cml.phy.nrc.ca
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Abstract

Wide bandgap III-V nitrides, such as GaN and AlN, have become topical in the near-term technology of blue lasers. We report detailed electronic band-structure calculations for (AlN)m (GaN)n [001] zinc-blende superlattices (SL), with m + n ≤ 12, using the all-electron full-potential linear-muffin-tin-orbital method. For n ≥ 3, the SL are found to have a direct band gap. For n ≤ 2 and m ≥ 3, all the band gaps are indirect. In ultrathin SL, m ≤ 3 and n ≤ 2, only (m, n)= (3,1) is found to have an indirect gap. The band offsets are estimated by calculating the core-level shifts of nitrogen atoms in the central planes of the GaN and A1N layers. The calculated densities of states, electron- and hole- effective masses (m), etc., as a function of m and n, are reported; a remarkable dependence of m on the number of layers is revealed.

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