Self-consistent electronic subband structure of undoped InAs/GaSb-based type II and broken-gap quantum well systems

Abstract

Motivated by a very recent experimental work on investigating electronic properties of InAs/GaSb-based type II and broken-gap quantum well structures, in this article we present a simple and transparent theoretical approach to calculate electronic subband structure in such device systems. The theoretical model is developed on the basis of solving self-consistently the Schrödinger equation for the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues coupled with the Poisson equation for the confinement potentials, in which the effects such as charge distribution and depletion are considered. In particular, we examine the effect of a GaSb cap layer on electronic properties of the quantum well systems in conjunction with experiments and experimental findings. The results obtained from the proposed self-consistent calculation can be used to understand important experimental findings and are in line with those measured experimentally.