Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
In this paper we have investigated the carrier contribution to elastic constants in very thin films of stressed small gap compounds within the domain of theory. It is found, taking stressed ultrathin films Hg1-xCdxTe and In1-xGaxAsyP1-y lattice matched to InP as examples, that the elastic constants increase with increasing electron concentration and decreasing film thickness respectively in oscillatory manners. Besides the stress enhances the numerical values of such contribution to the elastic constants. In addition, the theoretical formulation is in agreement with the suggested experimental method of determining such constants in materials having arbitary dispersion laws.