Electric-field-independent band gap superpositioning at 1.3 {mu}m in an InGaAs{endash}InAlAs strained-layer superlattice
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque , New Mexico 87185-0603 (United States)
We report on the electric-field dependent band-gap energy and near-gap absorption coefficient of a specially designed strained-layer superlattice (SLS) employing tensile strained quantum wells and having a band-gap wavelength near 1.3 {mu}m. The SLS was grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on an InP substrate and consists of In{sub 0.43}Ga{sub 0.57}As wells (4.5-nm-thick) and In{sub 0.6}Al{sub 0.4}As barriers (6.75-nm-thick). For applied fields from zero up to at least 2.5{times}10{sup 5}V/cm, the band-edge absorption exhibits a single peak, which we attribute to a field-independent superpositioning of the heavy- and light-hole ground states. This result agrees with tunneling resonance calculations, which predict these hole states to have the same zero-field energy and to undergo nearly identical Stark shifts. Absorption{endash}coefficient changes of up to 10{sup 4}cm{sup {minus}1} were readily achieved with applied biases under 15 V, suggesting potential applications to optical modulator devices. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 543747
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 71, Issue 16; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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