Theoretical study of the carrier effective mass in diluted III-N-V semiconductor alloys by using 10-band k.p model

Abstract

The dependence of carrier effective mass of GaNxAs1−x, InNx P1−x, InNxAs1−x, and InNxSb1−x alloys on nitrogen content is investigated using a 10-band k.p model. The electron effective mass me⁎ at the bottom of conduction band in GaNxAs1−x and InNxP1−x exhibits a gradual increase as a function of N concentration in the range 0−1% and a decrease of x value between 1 and 5%. However, the behavior of me⁎ in InNxAs1−x and InNxSb1−x shows a strong decrease in all studied x-range. Our results are compared to the available data reported in the literature. On the other hand, contrary to heavy-hole effective mass mhh⁎, the light-hole effective mass mlh⁎ in all studied alloys is significantly affected by nitrogen states, which modify the non-parabolicity of the LH band. The modification of the carrier effective mass affects the transport properties of the III-N-V alloys.