Stress effects on shallow-donor impurity states in symmetricalGaAs/AlxGa1−xAsdouble quantum wells

Abstract

The effects of the compressive stress on the binding energy and the density of shallow-donor impurity states in symmetrical ${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{A}\mathrm{l}}_{x}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}\mathrm{As}$ double quantum wells are calculated using a variational procedure within the effective-mass approximation. Results are for different well and barrier widths, shallow-donor impurity position, and compressive stress along the growth direction of the structure. We have found that independently of the well and barrier widths, for stress values up to 13.5 kbar (in the direct-gap regime) the binding energy increases linearly with the stress. For stress values greater than 13.5 kbar (indirect gap regime) and for impurities at the center of the wells, the binding energy increases up to a maximum and then decreases. For all impurity positions the binding energy shows a nonlinear behavior in the indirect gap regime due to the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}\ensuremath{-}X$ crossing effect. The density of impurity states is calculated for a homogeneous distribution of donor impurities within the barriers and the wells of the low-dimensional heterostructures. We have found that there are three special structures in the density of impurity states: one associated with on-center-barrier-, the second one associated with on-center-well-, and the third one corresponding to on-external-edge-well-impurity positions. The three structures in the density of impurity states must be observed in valence--to--donor-related absorption and conduction--to--donor-related photoluminescence spectra, and consequently these peaks can be tuned at specific energies and convert the system in a stress detector.