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Ab Initio Investigation of the Structural and Electronic Properties of HgTe/CdTe Superlattices

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Abstract

We carried out first-principle calculations to examine the impact of layer periodicity and strain on the structural and electronic features of HgTe/CdTe superlattices (SLs). The full-potential linearized augmented plane wave methodology is used to determine the electronic characteristics of these CdTe-HgTe heterojunctions. The CdTe and HgTe layers have a strong effect on the emerged fundamental energy gap of the SLs owing to the peculiar quantum confinement effect. The impact of layer thickness changes and strain are indispensable for engineering the energy band gap of HgTe/CdTe SLs. This could lead to an enormous development in the optoelectronic characteristics of these SLs, which may result in their broad applications in electronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for its funding of this research through the Research Group Project No. RGP- 233.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    A. Laref & M. Alsagri

  2. Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    A. Laref

  3. Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Str., 35032, Marburg, Germany

    S. Laref

  4. School of Science, Hubei University of Automotive Technology, Shiyan, China

    S. J. Luo

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  1. A. Laref
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  2. M. Alsagri
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  3. S. Laref
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  4. S. J. Luo
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Laref, A., Alsagri, M., Laref, S. et al. Ab Initio Investigation of the Structural and Electronic Properties of HgTe/CdTe Superlattices. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 4857–4864 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5475-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5475-z

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