Effect of spin-orbit split-off band on optical gain in AlGaInP/GaInP strair quantum wells

摘要

The optical gains in AlGaInP/GaInP strained quantum wells using valence band structures by the second-order k·p method, with and without spin-orbit split-off (SO) band effect have been calculated. It was easy to overestimate the optical gain without considering the SO-band effect, because a small spin-orbit splitting energy for GaInP makes higher nonparabolicity of the valence bands. The SO-band effect is particularly significant under tensile strain, since the SO band makes the effective mass very large due to the large interaction between the SO and light hole bands.