Intraband photon absorption in edge-defined nanowire superlattices for optoelectronic applications

We calculate the conduction miniband energy dispersion relation in an edge-defined silicon quantum wire periodic nanostructure embedded in SiO ₂. Our main aim is to predict the behavior of these nanostructures when used as components in optoelectronic devices such as, for example, photodetectors or intermediate-band solar cells. We take into consideration the effects of nonparabolicity and anisotropy and the different electron states arising from each valley when solving the Schrödinger equation. From these results, we investigate the intraband photon absorption coefficient for those transitions between minibands arising from the conduction band. We analyze the influence of light polarization and level of doping of the system in order to ascertain the best conditions for operation.