Energy-band structure of Si, Ge and GaAs over the whole Brillouin zone via the k.p method

We show that the k.p method taking into account spin-orbit coupling allows one to account for the band structure of Si, Ge and GaAs over the whole Brillouin zone on an extent of 5 eV above and 6 eV under the top of the valence band. The use of thirty bands provides effective masses in agreement with experimental data both for direct gap semiconductors (GaAs) and for indirect gap semiconductors (Si, Ge). The accuracy for the effective masses of the bottom of conduction band is of the order of one per cent as well for direct gap (GaAs) as for indirect gap (Si,,Ge).