Determination of the piezo-optical properties of semiconductors above the fundamental gap by means of reflectance difference spectroscopy Article uri icon

abstract

  • Reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS) has been used to determine piezo-optical coefficients of semiconductors above the fundamental gap. The high sensitivity of the RDS technique allows the determination of these coefficients with the use of very small uniaxial stresses (<0.05 GPa). By measurement of RDS on samples of cubic crystals under uniaxial stress along the [001] and [111] crystal directions, the piezo-optical coefficients P11-P12 and P44, respectively, were determined. Measurements on InP give results in good agreement with previously reported values obtained by ellipsometry. RDS was used successfully to determine the spectral dependence of P11-P12 in ZnSe, a II–VI semiconductor too brittle to support the stresses required for ellipsometric measurements. RDS is less sensitive than ellipsometry to the presence of surface overlayers. © 1999 Optical Society of America.

publication date

  • 1999-01-01