Abstract
•Optoelectronic properties of strained GaNAsBi/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) were studied.•Strain balanced GaNAsBi/GaNAsBi QWs were investigated by zero-stress balance model.•Limits of thickness for each strained GaNAsBi layer were discussed.•Type-I and -II QWs based on these strain balanced heterostructures were explored.•Near-infrared applications based on the type-II QWs with “W” shape were proposed.
Electronic band structure of t2-GaNx2As1-x2-y2Biy2/t1-GaNx1As1-x1-y1Biy1 strain-balanced quantum wells (QWs) elaborated on GaAs substrate was theoretically studied. Our study is based on the band anti-crossing model combined with the envelope function formalism. Using the zero stress balance model, the strain compensation criteria (N and Bi compositions, and thickness ratio (t1/t2) for the strain-balanced QWs is investigated. The critical thickness for each strained GaNAsBi layer is also discussed. Through the results, we found that the control of the compositions (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) for the tensile and compressive strained layers respectively, could modulate the band alignment of the strain-balanced QWs. The use of strain-balanced GaNx2As1-x2-y2Biy2/GaNx1As1-x1-y1Biy1type-II ”W” QWs is quite promising candidate for GaAs-based near-infrared photodetection range as compared to strain-balanced type-I QWs counterparts.