Optical Characterization of Quantum Well Structures

Abstract

A survey of the most common and useful interband optical techniques for characterizing semiconductor quantum well structures is presented. These are divided into three sections; ground state spectroscopy which deals with the transition between the lowest energy state of the conduction band well and the highest energy state of the valence band well; density-of-states spectroscopy which probes higher energy transitions between excited states in the conduction and valence band wells; and other spectroscopies which entails more sophisticated experiments which don’t fit conveniently into the first two categories. Examples are given of each in order to demonstrate the power of optical spectroscopy to elucidate the properties of semiconductor quantum wells.