| Dilute nitrogen-containing III-V-N alloys have been intensively studied for their unusual electronic and optical behavior in the presence of a small amount of nitrogen. Those behaviors can further be manipulated, with a careful consideration of the strain and strain balancing, for example, in the context of a strain-balanced superlattice (SL) based on those alloys. In this work, the k.p approximation and the band anti-crossing model modified for the strain have been used to describe the electronic states of the strained bulk-like GaAs1-xNx and InAs 1-yNy ternaries in the vicinity of the center of the Brillouin zone (Gamma-point). Band-offsets between the conduction and valence bands of GaAs1-xNx and InAs1-yN y have also been evaluated, before implementing them into the SL structure. By minimizing the total mechanical energy of the stack of the alternating layers of GaAs1-xNx and InAs1-yNy in the SL, the ratio of the thicknesses of the epilayers is determined to make the structure lattice-matching on the InP(001), through the strain-balancing. Mini-band energies of the strain-balanced GaAs1-xNx/InAs 1-yNy short-period SL on InP(001) is then investigated using the transfer matrix formalism. This enabled identifying the evolution of the band edge transition energies of the superlattice structure for different nitrogen compositions. Results show the potential of the new proposed design to exceed the existing limits of bulk-like InGaAsN alloys and offer the applications for photon absorption/emission energies in the range of ~0.65-0.35eV at 300K for a typical nitrogen composition of ≤5%.; The optical absorption coefficient of such a SL is then estimated under the anisotropic medium approximation, where the optical absorption of the bulk structure is modified according to the anisotropy imposed by the periodic potential in the growth direction.; As an application, the developed SL structure is used to investigate the performance of double, triple and quadruple junction thermophotovoltaic devices. Integration of the SL structure, which is lattice matched to InP, in the i region of the p(InGaAs)- i(SL) n(InGaAs) diode allowed the possibility of more than two junction thermophotovoltiac device with the enhanced performance in comparison to the conventional p(InGaAs)n(InGaAs) diode. |
