Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells
In this paper, ab initio calculations are used to determine polarization difference in zinc blende (ZB), hexagonal (H) and wurtzite (WZ) AlN-GaN and GaN-InN superlattices. It is shown that a polarization difference exists between WZ nitride compounds, while for H and ZB lattices the results are cons...
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| author | Ashfaq Ahmad Pawel Strak Kamil Koronski Pawel Kempisty Konrad Sakowski Jacek Piechota Izabella Grzegory Aleksandra Wierzbicka Serhii Kryvyi Eva Monroy Agata Kaminska Stanislaw Krukowski |
| author_facet | Ashfaq Ahmad Pawel Strak Kamil Koronski Pawel Kempisty Konrad Sakowski Jacek Piechota Izabella Grzegory Aleksandra Wierzbicka Serhii Kryvyi Eva Monroy Agata Kaminska Stanislaw Krukowski |
| author_sort | Ashfaq Ahmad |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper, ab initio calculations are used to determine polarization difference in zinc blende (ZB), hexagonal (H) and wurtzite (WZ) AlN-GaN and GaN-InN superlattices. It is shown that a polarization difference exists between WZ nitride compounds, while for H and ZB lattices the results are consistent with zero polarization difference. It is therefore proven that the difference in Berry phase spontaneous polarization for bulk nitrides (AlN, GaN and InN) obtained by Bernardini et al. and Dreyer et al. was not caused by the different reference phase. These models provided absolute values of the polarization that differed by more than one order of magnitude for the same material, but they provided similar polarization differences between binary compounds, which agree also with our ab initio calculations. In multi-quantum wells (MQWs), the electric fields are generated by the well-barrier polarization difference; hence, the calculated electric fields are similar for the three models, both for GaN/AlN and InN/GaN structures. Including piezoelectric effect, which can account for 50% of the total polarization difference, these theoretical data are in satisfactory agreement with photoluminescence measurements in GaN/AlN MQWs. Therefore, the three models considered above are equivalent in the treatment of III-nitride MQWs and can be equally used for the description of the electric properties of active layers in nitride-based optoelectronic devices. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:08:20Z |
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| id | doaj.art-ee1c5a9d55a641c3be4cac52a306fed4 |
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| issn | 1996-1944 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:08:20Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
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| series | Materials |
| spelling | doaj.art-ee1c5a9d55a641c3be4cac52a306fed42023-11-22T10:53:50ZengMDPI AGMaterials1996-19442021-08-011417493510.3390/ma14174935Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum WellsAshfaq Ahmad0Pawel Strak1Kamil Koronski2Pawel Kempisty3Konrad Sakowski4Jacek Piechota5Izabella Grzegory6Aleksandra Wierzbicka7Serhii Kryvyi8Eva Monroy9Agata Kaminska10Stanislaw Krukowski11Institute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, PolandCEA-IRIG-DEPHY-PHELIQS, Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, 17 av. des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, FranceInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandInstitute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, PolandIn this paper, ab initio calculations are used to determine polarization difference in zinc blende (ZB), hexagonal (H) and wurtzite (WZ) AlN-GaN and GaN-InN superlattices. It is shown that a polarization difference exists between WZ nitride compounds, while for H and ZB lattices the results are consistent with zero polarization difference. It is therefore proven that the difference in Berry phase spontaneous polarization for bulk nitrides (AlN, GaN and InN) obtained by Bernardini et al. and Dreyer et al. was not caused by the different reference phase. These models provided absolute values of the polarization that differed by more than one order of magnitude for the same material, but they provided similar polarization differences between binary compounds, which agree also with our ab initio calculations. In multi-quantum wells (MQWs), the electric fields are generated by the well-barrier polarization difference; hence, the calculated electric fields are similar for the three models, both for GaN/AlN and InN/GaN structures. Including piezoelectric effect, which can account for 50% of the total polarization difference, these theoretical data are in satisfactory agreement with photoluminescence measurements in GaN/AlN MQWs. Therefore, the three models considered above are equivalent in the treatment of III-nitride MQWs and can be equally used for the description of the electric properties of active layers in nitride-based optoelectronic devices.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/17/4935spontaneous polarizationmulti-quantum wellsnitrides |
| spellingShingle | Ashfaq Ahmad Pawel Strak Kamil Koronski Pawel Kempisty Konrad Sakowski Jacek Piechota Izabella Grzegory Aleksandra Wierzbicka Serhii Kryvyi Eva Monroy Agata Kaminska Stanislaw Krukowski Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells Materials spontaneous polarization multi-quantum wells nitrides |
| title | Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells |
| title_full | Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells |
| title_fullStr | Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells |
| title_full_unstemmed | Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells |
| title_short | Critical Evaluation of Various Spontaneous Polarization Models and Induced Electric Fields in III-Nitride Multi-Quantum Wells |
| title_sort | critical evaluation of various spontaneous polarization models and induced electric fields in iii nitride multi quantum wells |
| topic | spontaneous polarization multi-quantum wells nitrides |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/17/4935 |
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