Electronic band structure of polytypical nanowhiskers

Abstract

Abstract III-V compound nanowhiskers have attracted much attention recently due to their distinguished electronic and optical properties. In these nanostructures it was observed a phenomenon called polytypism, i. e., a phase alternation between zinc-blend and wurtzite structure. Although the polytypical effect is now well controlled, a more detailed band structure model is not still done, especially in the vicinity of the band edges. In this theoretical study we propose a model to calculate the electronic band structure in the vicinity of the band edges for polytypical nanowhiskers. Relying on group theory concepts and on the k p method we connected the irreducible representations at the Γ-point of the two crystal structures and described them in a single matrix. Our results for InP show the carriers’ spatial separation which agrees with reported experiments.