Photoreflectance study of direct-gap interband transitions in Ge/SiGe multiple quantum wells with Ge-rich barriers

Abstract

Photoreflectance (PR) was used to study the direct-gap interband transitions in strain-compensated Ge/SiGe multiple quantum well (MQW) structures with Ge-rich SiGe barriers grown by low-energy plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The PR spectra revealed a wide range of possible optical transitions in the MQW structure. Detailed lineshape fits to the PR spectra and comparison to a theoretical calculation based on the envelope-function approximation with conduction band-offset and stain compensation factor as adjust parameters led to the identification of various interband transitions. The results demonstrated that PR is a powerful technique for nondestructive optical characterization of Ge/SiGe MQW structures.