  Recent advances in growth techniques have allowed the fabrication of
semiconductor nanostructures with mixed wurtzite/zinc-blende crystal phases.
Although the optical characterization of these polytypic structures is well
eported in the literature, a deeper theoretical understanding of how crystal
phase mixing and quantum confinement change the output linear light
polarization is still needed. In this paper, we theoretically investigate the
mixing effects of wurtzite and zinc-blende phases on the interband absorption
and in the degree of light polarization of an InP polytypic superlattice. We
use a single 8$\times$8 k$\cdot$p Hamiltonian that describes both crystal
phases. Quantum confinement is investigated by changing the size of the
polytypic unit cell. We also include the optical confinement effect due to the
dielectric mismatch between the superlattice and the vaccum and we show it to
be necessary to match experimental results. Our calculations for large wurtzite
concentrations and small quantum confinement explain the optical trends of
recent photoluminescence excitation measurements. Furthermore, we find a high
sensitivity to zinc-blende concentrations in the degree of linear polarization.
This sensitivity can be reduced by increasing quantum confinement. In
conclusion, our theoretical analysis provides an explanation for optical trends
in InP polytypic superlattices, and shows that the interplay of crystal phase
mixing and quantum confinement is an area worth exploring for light
polarization engineering.
