One‐Particle and Excitonic Band Structure in Cubic Boron Arsenide

Abstract

Cubic BAs has received recent attention for its large electron and hole mobilities and large thermal conductivity. This is a rare and much desired combination in semiconductor industry: commercial semiconductors typically have high electron mobilities, or hole mobilities, or large thermal conductivities, but not all of them together. Herein, predictions from an advanced self‐consistent many‐body perturbative theory are reported and it is shown that with respect to one‐particle properties, BAs is strikingly similar to Si. There are some important differences, notably there is an unusually small variation in the valence band masses. With respect to two‐particle properties, significant differences with Si appear. The excitonic spectrum for both q = 0 and finite q is reported, and it is shown that while the direct gap in cubic BAs is about 4 eV, dark excitons can be observed down to about ≈1.5 eV, which may play a crucial role in application of BAs in optoelectronics.