HOW DOES THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF THE INTERFACE MODIFY THE BAND OFFSET

Without the introduction of any external atom, the heterojunction band offsets can be modified by the interface configuration. This phenomenon has been studied, for III-V (100) heterojunctions, from both theoretical and experimental points of view (experiments refer to the lattice-matched GaInAs/InP and GaInP/GaAs systems). The modulation of the band offset is of the range of about 100 meV and only appears when the constituents share neither common anion nor common cation. From a theoretical point of view, the variation of the band offset is related to the modification of interface dipoles due to the chemical rearrangement and to the strain redistribution around the interface.