Abstract
Based on the pseudopotential formalism, the effect of quantum confinement upon the energy band gaps and electron and heavy hole effective masses of nanostructures AlN in the zinc-blende phase has been examined. We have considered the case of a one-dimensional confinement where the AlN nanostructures have the form of quantum wells. The study showed that a tremendous variation of the investigated properties occurred for quantum well width below 5 nm. This could provide more diverse opportunities to obtain desired electronic properties that were not possible in the bulk (unconfined) AlN materials. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.