A comparison between contactless electroreflectance and photoreflectance spectra from n-doped GaAs on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate

Abstract

Contactless electroreflectance (CER) and photoreflectance (PR) measurements have been performed on samples with the structure of an n-doped GaAs epitaxial layer on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate. Modulated reflectance signals from the n-GaAs surface and those from the n-GaAs/SI-GaAs interface are superposed in PR spectra. For the case of CER measurement, however, Franz–Keldysh oscillations (FKOs) from the interface, which are observed in PR spectra, cannot be detected. This discrepancy is attributed to different modulation mechanisms of CER and PR. In CER experiments, the electric field modulation cannot be added to the interfacial electric field because of the effective screening by the fast response of carriers across the interface. FKOs from the interface without any perturbation by the surface signals are extracted by subtracting CER spectra from PR spectra.