Eur. Phys. J. B 48, 151-156 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00389-6

Strain-balanced Si_1-xGe_x/Si type II quantum wells for 1.55 µm detection and emission

¹ Faculté des Sciences de Monastir, Département de Physique, Unité de Physique des Solides, Boulevard de l'Environnement, 5019 Monastir, Tunisia
² Centre de Recherche en Matière Condensée et Nanosciences, CRMC-N (Laboratory associated with the Université de la Méditerranée, Aix-Marseille II and the Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III) , UPR CNRS 7251, Campus de Luminy, Case 913, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France

Corresponding authors: ^a sfina_fsm@yahoo.fr - ^b lazzari@crmcn.univ-mrs.fr - ^c moncef_said@yahoo.fr

Received: 27 April 2005
Revised: 3 July 2005
Published online: 16 December 2005

Abstract

This work deals with the optoelectronic properties of heterostructures built on type II Si_1-xGe_x/Si strained quantum wells grown on relaxed Si_1-yGe_y/Si (001) pseudo-substrates. To limit the intrinsic problem due to the real-space indirect nature of the interface, we propose and model three heterostructures having three different potential profiles of the valence and conduction bands which consist in various arrangements of Si and Si_1-xGe_x barriers of different Ge contents. The proposed stacks are designed in a pragmatic way for a pseudomorphic growth on relaxed Si_1-yGe_y assuming individual layer thickness being smaller than the known critical thickness and an overall compensation of the strain. Variation of thickness and compositions (x>y) permits to optimize i) the quantum confinement of electrons and heavy-hole levels and ii) the wave function's overlap and the out-of-plane oscillator strength. The optimum parameters satisfy a fundamental emission at a key 1.55 µm wavelength below the absorption edge of each layer constitutive of the stacks. A comparison between the characteristics of the three heterostructures brings out the superior advantages of the W architecture.