Band to band tunneling in III-V semiconductors: Implications of complex band structure, strain, orientation, and off-zone center contribution

Abstract

In this paper, we use a tight binding Hamiltonian with spin orbit coupling to study the real and complex band structures of relaxed and strained GaAs. A simple d orbital on-site energy shift coupled with appropriate scaling of the off-diagonal terms is found to correctly reproduce the band-edge shifts with strain. Four different ⟨100⟩ strain combinations, namely, uniaxial compressive, uniaxial tensile, biaxial compressive, and biaxial tensile strain are studied, revealing rich valence band structure and strong relative orientation dependent tunneling. It is found that complex bands are unable to provide unambiguous tunneling paths away from the Brillouin zone center. Tunneling current density distribution over the Brillouin zone is computed using non-equilibrium Green's function approach elucidating a physical picture of band to band tunneling.