Biaxial strain-modified valence and conduction band offsets of zinc-blende GaN, GaP, GaAs, InN, InP, and InAs, and optical bowing of strained epitaxial InGaN alloys

Using density-functional calculations, we obtain the (001) biaxial strain dependence of the valence and conduction band energies of GaN, GaP, GaAs, InN, InP, and InAs. The results are fit to a convenient-to-use polynomial and the fits provided in tabular form. Using the calculated biaxial deformation potentials in large supercell empirical pseudopotential calculations, we demonstrate that epitaxial strain reduces the InGaN alloy bowing coefficient compared to relaxed bulk alloys.