Spin splitting effect on the effective mass of GaAs/AlxGa1?xAs quantum wells
The enhancement of the electronic effective mass in GaAs/AlxGa1?xAs quantum wells is investigated within the framework of a 14-band k.p theory. In this theory, the bulk conduction band dispersion is expanded to fourth order in the wave vector, k, and the anisotropy and spin splitting effects are also included. The analytical expressions for the non-confinement and confinement-direction masses are reformulated to take into account the spin splitting effect. The dependence of the effective mass with the quantum well width is also discussed for different compositions of the barrier material (AlxGa1?xAs). It results that the spin splitting effect on the effective mass decrease with increasing widths of the GaAs/AlxGa1?xAs quantum wells. For values of the well width greater than 10 nm, a value close to the bulk GaAs is obtained. This behaviour is similar to that reported in the literature for GaAs/AlxGa1?xAs quantum wires.
spin splitting effect effective mass gaas/alxga1-xas quantum wells 73.20.d 71.25.tn