Energy Band Calculation and Zero Energy Gap Conditions for Semiconductor Superlattices

Abstract

Abstract The energy spectrum of the superlattice structure is analysed in detail, assuming that the spatial distributions of the potential energy and the effective mass are rectangular. It is shown that both wells and barriers may appear in the first and second materials, depending on the transverse component value of the wave vector. Two ZEG (zero energy gap) conditions are also derived; the second one being a direct consequence of the spatial dependence of the effective mass. The numerical analysis of results is performed on Al X Ga 1− x As‐GaAs superlattice structure. This numerical results confirm theoretical results exposed in the first part of the paper.