Abstract
The electronic properties of wide-energy gap zinc-blende structure GaN, AlN, and their alloys Ga1−xAlxN are investigated using the empirical pseudopotential method. Electron and hole effective mass parameters, hydrostatic and shear deformation potential constants of the valence band at Γ and those of the conduction band at Γ and X are obtained for GaN and AlN, respectively. The energies of Γ, X, L conduction valleys of Ga1−xAlxN alloy versus Al fraction x are also calculated. The information will be useful for the design of lattice mismatched heterostructure optoelectronic devices based on these materials in the blue light range application.