The hybrid model for optical phonon confinement in AlN/GaN quantum wells

The confined optical phonons of the AlN/GaN quantum well system are described for an extended version of a continuum theory. The need for the extension is because the reststrahl bands of the two materials overlap and hence a dispersive mode from one material can propagate in the other, weakening the confinement. There is also a problem as to which mechanical boundary conditions should be used in this case. We compare total electron-phonon scattering rates in a quantum well structure for different mechanical boundary conditions and show that, because all of the phonons modes are included, the results are very similar. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.