Behavior of zone-center, subband energies in narrow, strongly coupled quantum wells

Abstract

Narrow, symmetric coupled quantum wells (CQWs) are studied using a k⋅p, pseudopotential method. GaAs wells that range in width from 11.4 to 99.0 Å and Al0.3Ga0.7As barriers that range in width from 11.4 to 17.0 Å are treated. Features of the systems such as energy positions as a function of well and barrier width, subband crossing, and subband splitting about the single well subband position are described. A simple function with subband-dependent constants is fit to both the subband-pair splitting as a function of barrier width and the subband energy position as a function of well width. This function provides an accurate and simple aid in CQW design for devices and experiments.