Effects of dc bias on electrolyte electroreflectance spectra

Abstract

The effects of a constant component of electric field (dc bias) across an electrolyte–semiconductor interface are studied and discussed. The change of bias causes variations in spectral features depending on the type of the semiconducting material and the position of a feature in relation to the interband transition energy. The phenomena are illustrated in experiments carried out on GaAs and HgMnTe. It is experimentally shown that dc bias in conjunction with the electrolyte electroreflectance technique can be used to determine the type of the material, to locate the flat-band potential, and to study the surface states. It has also been shown that dc bias can be used to determine low field conditions.