Magneto-optical absorption spectra and self-similarity of GaAs–(Ga,Al)As quasiperiodic Fibonacci superlattices under in-plane magnetic fields

Abstract

A theoretical study of the effects of in-plane magnetic fields on the interband optical absorption spectra of quasiperiodic GaAs–(Ga,Al)As Fibonacci superlattices is presented within the effective-mass approximation. The electron-envelope wave functions and magnetic subbands are obtained by an expansion in harmonic-oscillator wave functions. The theoretical optical absorption spectra are calculated for magnetic fields related by integer powers of the golden mean τ=(1+√5)/2. It is unambiguously shown that, for magnetic-field values scaled by τ2n, the corresponding optical absorption spectra essentially exhibit a self-similar behavior, with the width of the peaks increasing linearly with the field, in agreement with the experimental results by D. Toet, M. Potemski, Y. Y. Wang, J. C. Maan, L. Tapter, and K. Ploog [Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 2128 (1991)].