Thermopiezoelectric effects on optoelectronic properties of CdTe/ZnTe quantum wires

Patil, S.R. and Melnik, R.V.N.

Physica Status Solidi A - Applications and Materials Science,  206(5), 960-964, 2009

Abstract:

We investigate thermopiezoelectric field distributions and their effects on electronic properties of the highly strained CdTe/ZnTe quantum wires. The full 3D coupled thermoelectromechanical formulation, consisting of balance equations for heat transfer, electrostatics and the mechanical field, is developed. Effects of thermal loadings on piezoelectric fields are determined for rectangular CdTe/ZnTe quantum wire systems. The conduction band edge shifts due to thermoelectromechancial loadings are calculated. A single band Schrodinger equation is used to determine eigenstates for electrons and the analysis of classical effects are presented. Piezoelectric quantities are observed to be relatively less sensitive to thermal loadings. However, these effects are observed to be important in the determination of electronic/optoelectronic properties of quantum wire systems. The results presented here help improve our understanding of the classical effects on electronic structures and optoelectronic properties of CdTe/ZnTe quantum wires.