Influence of strain on band structure of semiconductor nanostructures

Abstract

The influence of the mechanical strain on the electronic structure of the asymmetric (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum well is considered. Both the direct influence of strain on the orbital part of the electronic structure and an indirect influence through the strain dependent Rashba and Dresselhaus Hamiltonians are taken into account. The analyzed quantum well is taken to have a triangular shape, and is oriented along the <110> direction. For this direction, there exists both the intrinsic and strain-induced spin-orbit interaction. For all analyzed types of spin-orbit interaction, subband splittings depend linearly on the in-plane wave vector. On the other hand, the electronic structure for the Rashba type of the strain-induced spin-orbit interaction shows isotropic dependence in the k-space, while the electronic structure due to the Dresselhaus type shows anisotropy. Furthermore, the Rashba strain-induced spin-orbit interaction increases subband splitting, while the effect of the Dresselhaus Hamiltonian on the electronic structure is opposite to the intrinsic spin-orbit interaction for certain polar angles.