Self-consistent determination of the confinement potential in various etched quantum wire structures

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 34; no. 8B; pp. 4458 - 4461
• Main Authors: WIRNER, C, HAMAGUCHI, C, SMOLINER, J, REINACHER, N, GORNIK, E
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Japanese journal of applied physics 1995
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Electron states and collective excitations in multilayers, quantum wells, mesoscopic, and nanoscale systems; Electron states and collective excitations in thin films, multilayers, quantum wells, mesoscopic and nanoscale systems; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; Physics; Aluminium arsenides; Quantum wires; Confinement; Gallium arsenides; Inorganic compounds; Semiconductor materials; Ternary compounds; Depletion layer; Self consistency; Theoretical study; Binary compounds; Etching; Numerical method; Subband; Thickness; Potentials; Finite difference method
• ISSN: 0021-4922; 1347-4065
• DOI: 10.1143/jjap.34.4458

The confinement potential in etched quantum wire structures is calculated self-consistently as a function of the etch profile in the shallow as well as the deeply etched regime. The etching effect is taken into account by introducing surface charges at the etched semiconductor interfaces. In single GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures a remarkable decrease of the confinement in the growth direction is found in the deeply etched regime depending on the wire width. The effect is explained by side depletion of the wire and the ionized donor layer. In GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells, side depletion results in an asymmetric well potential shifting the electronic wave function towards the top interface of the well.