Intersubband energies in strain-compensated InGaN/AlInN quantum well structures

Intersubband transition energies in the conduction band for strain-compensated InGaN/AlInN quantum well (QW) structures were investigated as a function of strain based on an effective mass theory with the nonparabolicity taken into account. In the case of an InGaN/AlInN QW structure lattice-matched to GaN, the wavelength is shown to be longer than 1.55 μm. On the other hand, strain-compensated QW structures show that the wavelength of 1.55 μm can be reached even for the QW structure with a relatively small strain of 0.3 %. Hence, the strain-compensated QW structures can be used for telecommunication applications at 1.55 μm with a small strain, compared to conventional GaN/AlN QW structure.