BEHAVIOR OF ZONE-CENTER, SUBBAND ENERGIES IN NARROW, STRONGLY COUPLED QUANTUM-WELLS

Narrow, symmetric coupled quantum wells (CQWs) are studied using a k.p, pseudopotential method. GaAs wells that range in width from 11.4 to 99.0 angstrom and Al0.3Ga0.7As barriers that range in width from 11.4 to 17.0 angstrom are treated. Features of the systems such as energy positions as a function of well and barrier width, subband crossing, and subband splitting about the single well subband position are described. A simple function with subband-dependent constants is fit to both the subband-pair splitting as a function of barrier width and the subband energy position as a function of well width. This function provides an accurate and simple aid in CQW design for devices and experiments.