Sains Ma1aysiana 28: 127-139 (1999)                                                                           Sains Fizis dan Gunaan/

                                                                                                                                                Physical and Applied Science

Effective Mass of Band Edges in a  (20)

InAs-(6)Al_0.1Ga_0.9Sb Superlattice

Geri Kibe AK. Gopir

School of Applied Physics

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor D.E. Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The curvature method and the f-sum rule are used to calculate the effective mass of electrons and holes at the Brillouin zone band edges of a (20)InAs(6)Al_0.1Ga_0.9Sb superlattice. The electronic and optical parameters used in the calculations for this type II semiconductor superlattice are derived from the relativistic empirical pseudopotential method. In this superlattice system the calculated effective masses for the carriers are anisotropic and differ from those of the various reported semiconductor heterostructures. These results indicate that the carrier effective masses are dependent on certain factors such as polarisation, constituent layer composition and layer length. The calculated effective masses of electrons in this III- V semiconductor heterostructure are found to be larger than those in Hg_1-xCd_xTe alloys with similar band gaps corresponding to cutoff wavelengths near 10 μm. This makes the InAs-AlGaSb superlattice system a potential competitor to the present standard material of HgCdTe for far infrared applications.

ABSTRAK

Kaedah kelengkungan dan aturan hasiltambah-f digunakan untuk mengira jisim berkesan bagi elektron dan lohong pada pinggir-pinggir jalur bagi zon Brillouin dalam superkekisi 20)InAs-(6)Al_0.1Ga_0.9Sb. Parameter-parameter elektronik dan optik yang diguna bagi superkekisi semikonduktor jenis II ini telah diperolehi dari kaedah pseudokeupayaan empiris relativistik. Dalam sistem superkekisi ini jisim-jisim berkesan kiraan bagi pembawa adalah anisotropik dan berbeza dari yang telah dilaporkan bagi beberapa sistem heterostruktur semikonduktor. Hasil-hasil ini menunjukkan bahawa jisim-jisim berkesan dalam heterostruktur semikonduktor dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor tertentu seperti polarisasi, kandungan lapisan dan panjang lapisan bagi bahan-bahan konstituen. Jisim-jisim berkesan kiraan bagi electron-elektron dalam heterostruktur semikonduktor III- V ini adalah lebih besar dari jisim-jisim berkesan bagi elektron-elektron dalam aloi Hg_1-xCd_xTe pada jurang-jurang jalur yang sepadan dengan jarak gelombang penggalan dekat 10 μm. Ini menjadikan sistem superkekisi InAS-AlGaSb ini berkeupayaan untuk bersaing dengan bahan piawai HgCdTe bagi kegunaan inframerah jauh.

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