  Semiconductor nanowhiskers made of III-V compounds exhibit great potential
for technological applications. Controlling the growth conditions, such as
temperature and diameter, it is possible to alternate between zinc blend and
wurtzite crystalline phases, giving origin to the so called polytypism. This
effect has great influence in the electronic and optical properties of the
system, generating new forms of confinement to the carriers. A theoretical
model capable to accurately describe electronic and optical properties in these
polytypical nanostructures can be used to study and develop new kinds of
nanodevices. In this study, we present the development of a wurtzite/zincblend
polytypical model to calculate the electronic band structure of nanowhiskers
based on group theory concepts and the k$\cdot$p method. Although the interest
is in polytypical superlattices, the proposed model was applied to a single
quantum well of InP to extract the physics of the wurtzite/zincblend
polytypism. By the analysis of our results, some trends can be predicted:
spatial carriers' separation, predominance of perpendicular polarization (xy
plane) in the luminescence spectra and interband transition blueshifts with
strain. A possible range of values for the WZ InP spontaneous polarization was
suggested.
