Zincblende structure Brillouin Zone

FIGURE 3 First Brillouin zones of (a) wurtzite and (b) zincblende structures. 

Poole, Liesegang, Leckey, and Jenkin (1975) have reviewed published band calculations for the alkali halides and tabulated the corresponding parameters obtained by various methods. Pantclidcs (1975c) has used an empirical LCAO method that is similar to that described for cesium chloride in Chapter 2 (see Fig. 2-2), to obtain a universal one-parameter form for the upper valence bands in the rocksalt structure. This study did not assume only one important interatomic matrix clement, as we did in Chapter 2, but assumed that all interatomic matrix elements scale as d with universal parameters. Thus it follows that all systems would have bands of exactly the same form but of varying scale. That form is shown in Fig. 14-2. Rocksalt and zincblende have the same Brillouin Zone and symmetry lines, which were shown in Fig. 3.6. The total band width was given by... 

The band structure of solids has been studied theoretically by various research groups. In most cases it is rather complex as shown for Si and GaAs in Fig. 1.5. The band structure, E(kf is a function of the three-dimensional wave vector within the Brillouin zone. The latter depends on the crystal structure and corresponds to the unit cell of the reciprocal lattice. One example is the Brillouin zone of a diamond type of crystal structure (C, Si, Ge), as shown in Fig. 1.6. The diamond lattice can also be considered as two penetrating face-centered cubic (f.c.c.) lattices. In the case of silicon, all cell atoms are Si. The main crystal directions, F —> L ([111]), F X ([100]) and F K ([110]), where Tis the center, are indicated in the Brillouin zone by the dashed lines in Fig. 1.6. Crystals of zincblende structure, such as GaAs, can be described in the same way. Here one sublattice consists of Ga atoms and the other of As atoms. The band structure, E(k), is usually plotted along particular directions within the Brillouin zone, for instance from the center Falong the [Hl] and the [HX)] directions as given in Fig. 1.5. 

---