Dependence of electronic properties on nitrogen concentration in GaAs1−xNx dilute alloys

Abstract

Based on the pseudopotential scheme, the effect of nitrogen concentration on electronic properties of zinc-blende GaAs1−xNx alloys has been investigated for small amounts of N. The agreement between our calculated electronic band parameters and the available experimental data is generally reasonable. In agreement with recent experiment, we find that the incorporation of a few percent of N in the material of interest reduces substantially the fundamental band-gap energy and narrows the full valence band width. The electron and heavy hole effective masses are found to decrease rapidly when adding a concentration of nitrogen less than 0.005 in GaAs. This may increase the mobility of electrons and heavy holes providing new opportunities regarding the transport properties. The information derived from the present study shows that GaAs1−xNx (0⩽x⩽0.05) properties may have an important optoelectronic applications in infrared and mid-infrared spectral regions.