Electronic structure of Si/Ge semiconductor superlattices

Abstract

A brief review about the two dimensional electron systems and especially band offsets is given. The electronic properties of the Si„/Ge„(001) strained superlattices as a function of the superlattice periodicity and the band misfit is investigated by using the empirical tight-binding method. The difference between the direct and indirect band gaps is reduced from 2.01 eV for bulk Si to 0.01 eV for n = 6. Consequently, the superlattice with n = 6 can be considered as quasi-direct, while it is at least 0.15 eV for n = 4 case. For the cases n=5,6, and 8, the band gap might become direct for large values of band misfit.