STRAIN DISTRIBUTION AND ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF SELF-ORGANIZED InAs/GaAs QUANTUM DOTS

Abstract

This paper presents a finite element method for calculating the strain distribution, piezoelectric effects and their influences on the electronic structure of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots. The models used for strain calculations are based on the continuum elastic theory, which is capable of treating the quantum dot of arbitrary shapes. A truncated pyramid shaped quantum dot model including the wetting layer is adopted in this work. The electronic energy levels of the InAs/GaAs systems are calculated by solving the three-dimension effective mass Schrödinger equation including the influences on the modification of conduction band edge due to the strain and piezoelectricity. The calculated results indicate that both strain and piezoelectric effects should be considered, especially in treating the electronic structure and optical characteristics for device applications.