Investigation of group-III-nitride semiconductor nanostructures using an eight-band $\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p}$ formalism

Despite its approximative nature, the $\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p}$-formalism provides a numerically efficient and accurate description of the electronic structure of group-III nitride semiconductor nanostructures with characteristic dimensions of few nanometers. [1] With the computational effort of this method being independent of the system size, it is possible to study an extensive set of zero-, one- and two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures. We applied a plane-wave implementation of the 8-band $\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p}$ formalism and second-order continuum elasticity theory to various III-nitride nanostructures such as InGaN/GaN or GaN/AlN quantum dots in the characteristic wurtzite and zincblende crystal structures. We investigated the effect of strain and polarization effects on the charge carrier localization which typically leads to a spatial separation of electrons and holes in wurtzite nanostructures. Additionally, studies have been performed in order to evaluate trends when varying the alloy composition in InGaN/GaN nanostructures in order to understand light emission processes in realistic nanostructures.\\ \\ 1: Marquardt, Mourad, Schulz, Hickel, Czycholl, Neugebauer, Phys. Rev. B, in print (2008)