The hybrid model for optical phonon confinement in AlN/GaN quantum wells

The confined optical phonons of the AlN/GaN quantum well system are describ ed for an extended version of a continuum theory. The need for the extensio n is because the reststrahl bands of the two materials overlap and hence a dispersive mode from one material can propagate in the other, weakening the confinement. There is also a problem as to which mechanical boundary condi tions should be used in this case. We compare total electron-phonon scatter ing rates in a quantum well structure for different mechanical boundary con ditions and show that, because all of the phonons modes are included, the r esults are very similar. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved .