A simplified analysis of the electronic contribution to the elastic constants in ultrathin films of stressed semiconductors under magnetic quantization

An attempt is made to study the electronic contribution to the second- and third-order elastic constants in ultrathin films of strained semiconductors under magnetic quantization in the presence of broadening on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion law. It is found. taking stressed n- InSb as an example, that the carrier contribution to the second- and third- order elastic constants oscillates with increasing carrier degeneracy and d ecreasing film thickness, respectively, in different manners and the stress enhances their numerical values. A relationship between the said contribut ions and the thermoelectric power has been derived for quantum confined sem iconductors having arbitrary dispersion laws and our analysis agrees quite well with the suggested relationship. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All ri ghts reserved.