Dispersion of interface optical phonons and their coupling with electrons in asymmetrical wurtzite GaN/Ga1-xAlxN quantum wells

Within the framework of the dielectric continuum model and Loudon's uniaxial crystal model, the properties of frequency dispersion of the interface optical (IO) phonon modes and the coupling functions of electron-IO-phonon interaction in an asymmetrical wurtzite quantum well (QW) are deduced and analyzed via the method of electrostatic potential expansion. Numerical results reveal that in general, there are four branches of IO phonon modes in the systems. The dispersions of the four branches of IO phonon modes are obvious only when the free wavenumher k(t) in xy plane is small. The degenerating behavior of all the four branches of IO phonon modes in the asymmetric wurtzite QWs has been clearly observed for small k(t). When k(t) is relatively large, with the increase of kt, the frequencies of the IO phonon modes converge to the four definite limiting frequencies in the corresponding wurtzite single planar heterostructure. This feature is obviously different from that in symmetric wurtzite QW, and the mathematical and physical reasons have been analyzed in depth. The calculations of electron-phonon coupling function show that the electrostatic distribution of the IO modes is neither symmetrical nor antisymmetrical, and the high-frequency IO phonon branches and the short-wavelength IO phonon modes play a more important role in the electron-phonon interaction.