Polar optical phonons in a semiconductor quantum-well: The complete matching problem

Abstract

Confined polar optical phonons in a semiconductor quantum-well (QW) are studied by applying a phenomenological theory which was proposed a few years ago and is based on a continuum approach. This theory considers the coupled character of the electromechanical vibrations and takes due account of both the electric and mechanical boundary conditions. In the present work, we have applied the so-called complete matching problem in contrast with all previous published works on the subject, where more restrictive approximate boundary conditions has been applied. We also consider the effects of strains at the interfaces on the phonon spectra. Comparisons with previous works are made, while we focused on the study of a ZnTe/CdTe/ZnTe QW.