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Title: Interband magneto-spectroscopy in InSb square and parabolic quantum wells

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921293· OSTI ID:22412868
; ; ; ;  [1]; ; ; ;  [2]
  1. Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 (United States)
  2. Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (United States)

We measure the magneto-optical absorption due to intersubband optical transitions between conduction and valence subband Landau levels in InSb square and parabolic quantum wells. InSb has the narrowest band gap (0.24 eV at low temperature) of the III–V semiconductors leading to a small effective mass (0.014 m{sub 0}) and a large g–factor (−51). As a result, the Landau level spacing is large at relatively small magnetic fields (<8 T), and one can observe spin-splitting of the Landau levels. We examine two structures: (i) a multiple-square-well structure and (ii) a structure containing multiple parabolic wells. The energies and intensities of the strongest features are well explained by a modified Pidgeon-Brown model based on an 8-band k•p model that explicitly incorporates pseudomorphic strain. The strain is essential for obtaining agreement between theory and experiment. While modeling the square well is relatively straight-forward, the parabolic well consists of 43 different layers of various thickness to approximate a parabolic potential. Agreement between theory and experiment for the parabolic well validates the applicability of the model to complicated structures, which demonstrates the robustness of our model and confirms its relevance for developing electronic and spintronic devices that seek to exploit the properties of the InSb band structure.

OSTI ID:
22412868
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 21; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English