QUANTUM-MECHANICS OF ELECTRONS IN CRYSTALS WITH GRADED COMPOSITION

We construct the effective Hamiltonian describing the motion of electr ons in compositionally graded crystals which is valid throughout a giv en energy band and part way into the gaps. Near the edges of a simple or degenerate band this effective Hamiltonian reduces to an effective mass Hamiltonian with position dependent effective mass. Next, we exam ine more general states-not restricted to the vicinity of a band edge- in crystals with composition and applied potential variation in one di rection. We obtain a WKB-type solution for the envelope functions, as well as the appropriate turning point connection rules.