Optical Characterization of III-V Semiconductors

During the past several years considerable attention has been focused on artificially structured materials. These materials consist of layered structures of the same or different materials. With the advent of the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth techniques, atomic layers of one material can be grown on another material with sharp, reproducible interfaces. For layer thicknesses of a few angstroms or less, well defined quasi two-dimensional electronic sub-bands are formed. The confined carriers result in novel electronic and optical properties. The heterostructure system that has received the most extensive investigation is the AlGaAs/GaAs system. The characterization of this system is the focus of the current paper.