Inclusion of spin-orbit coupling into tight binding bandstructure calculations for bulk and superlattice semiconductors

Abstract

Recent interest in superlattice based semiconductor devices has led to the need for the ability to make accurate superlattice bandstructure calculations. The tight binding model formalism has already been applied to this problem. In this paper, a technique is presented for the inclusion of spin-orbit coupling into the tight binding formalism. The most attractive feature of the technique presented is that it does not increase the size of the basis which may already be very large for superlattices. This allows a more accurate calculation of the superlattice bandstructure at no additional cost.