Effects of image potential on electronic and impurity states in quantum wells.

Abstract

The effects of an image potential on the electronic and hydrogenic impurity states in AlAs/GaAs/AlAs quantum wells are calculated by using variational solutions to the effective-mass equation. The results we have obtained show that when the image potential is added the variations of electronic state energy levels and impurity binding energies are significant, especially when the width of the quantum well becomes narrow. The results also show that the effects of the impurity-ion image potential on impurity binding energies are much larger than those of the electron image potential.