Hydrostatic pressure dependence of binding energies for donors in quantum well heterostructures

Abstract

The hydrostatic pressure dependence of the binding energies for donors in GaAs-Al_xGa_1-xAs quantum well heterostructures is reported. It is found that the binding energy of the donor electron at nearly room temperature is enhanced by increasing the external hydrostatic pressure. Furthermore, it is noticed that at constant hydrostatic pressure the enhancement in the binding energy is more pronounced for a narrow quantum well than for a wide one. It can be pointed out that the binding energies for donors in quantum well heterostructures are functions of both values of the hydrostatic pressure and the quantum well thickness.