Electronic and optical properties of a- and m-plane wurtzite InGaN-GaN quantum wells

Electronic and optical properties of a- (φ = 0) and plane (φ φ/= 6) InGaN-GaN quantum-well (QW) structures investigated using the multiband effective-mass theory with an arbitrary crystal orientation. These results arecompared with those c-plane or (0001)-oriented wurtzite InGaN-GaNQWs.We derive explicitly the Hamiltonians with their elements and the interband optical matrix elements with polarization dependence for the a-,m-, and c-planes. The bandgap transition wavelength of the QW structure with them-plane is found to be longer than that of theQW structures with the a-plane. The average hole effective masses of topmost valence band along k′_y for the a- andm-planes are significantly lower than that of the c-plane. Here, the prime indicates physical quantities in a general crystal orientation. In addition, their optical gain and optical matrix element show strong in-plane anisotropy. The optical gain of the y′-polarization is much larger than that of the -polarization because the optical matrix element the -polarization is larger than that of the x′-polarization.