Electronic band structure and material gain of III-V-Bi quantum wells grown on GaSb substrate and dedicated for mid-infrared spectral range

Abstract

The 8-band kp Hamiltonian is applied to calculate electronic band structure and material gain in III-V-Bi quantum wells (QWs) grown on GaSb substrates. We analyzed three Bi-containing QWs (GaSbBi, GaInSbBi, and GaInAsSbBi) and different Bi-free barriers (GaSb and AlGaInAsSb), lattice matched to GaSb. Bi-related changes in the electronic band structure of III-V host incorporated into our formalism are based on recent ab-initio calculations for ternary alloys (III-Ga-Bi and III-In-Bi) [Polak et al., Semicond. Sci. Technol. 30, 094001 (2015)]. When compared to Bi-free QWs, the analyzed Bi-containing structures show much better quantum confinement in the valence band and also larger redshift of material gain peak per percent of compressive strain. For 8 nm thick GaInSb/GaSb QWs, material gain of the transverse electric (TE) mode is predicted at 2.1 μm for the compressive strain of ε = 2% (32% In). The gain peak of the TE mode in 8 nm thick GaSbBi/GaSb QW reaches this wavelength for compressive strain of 0.15% that corresponds to about 5% Bi. It has also been shown that replacing In atoms by Bi atoms in GaInSbBi/GaSb QWs while keeping the same compressive strain (ε = 2%) in QW region enhances and shifts gain peak significantly to the longer wavelengths. For 8 nm wide GaInSbBi/GaSb QW with 5% Bi, the gain peak is predicted at around 2.6 μm, i.e., is redshifted by about 400 nm compared to Bi-free QW. For 8 nm wide GaInAsSbSb QWs (80% In, 5% Bi, and ε = 2%) with proper AlGaInAsSb barriers, it is possible to achieve large material gain even at 4.0 μm.