Compressibility for a quasi-two-dimensional electron-hole plasma with strain and quantum confinement effects

The ground-state energy and the compressibility for the interacting electro n-hole plasma in semiconductor quantum wells are discussed taking into acco unt finite well width and strain effects as a function of sheet carrier den sity. Many-body effects are evaluated within the Hartree-Fock approximation and the valence-band nonparabolicity due to band mixing is examined by sol ving the Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian. The results are applied to InxGa1-xAs/ InGaAsP/InP quantum wells and we observe that the ground-state energies are lowered with increasing sheet carrier density and quantum confinement effe ct. These variations of ground-state energy depending on the sheet carrier density and the quantum confinement effect have considerable effects on the thermodynamic compressibility of electrons and holes.