Confined and interface phonon modes in GaN/ZnO heterostructures

Confined and interface optical phonon modes in type II GaN/ZnO heterostructures are investigated in this paper. The optical phonon frequencies of the wurtzite semiconductors GaN and ZnO are calculated as a function of angular variation with respect to the c-axis of these wurtzite crystals. The interface (IF) phonon frequencies of the GaN/ZnO/GaN and ZnO/GaN/ZnO heterostructures are calculated as a function of the wave vector. In addition, the confined and interface phonon-carrier interaction Hamiltonians for the Frohlich interactions are presented. In this article, it is shown that the IF phonon interaction potentials dominate the phonon interactions in both of the heterostructures when the dimensions of the structures are small enough. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.