Infrared optical properties of III–V and II–VI superlattices

Abstract

The infrared optical properties arising from fundamental and intersubband absorption in III–V and II–VI semiconductor superlattices (SL) are calculated using a superlattice representation formalism. The SL electronic structure at finite wavevector K is obtained from the known K = 0 solutions using SL K · p theory. The theoretical fundamental absorption curves for HgTe/HgCdTe SL are in excellent agreement with recent experimental data. Intersubband absorption between the lowest conduction subbands Cl and C2 is large in both the thick and thin barrier limit, and of potential technological importance.