We use exciton signatures in optical absorption spectra to probe material and structural properties of InSb/Al_xIn_1-xSb multiple quantum wells. Excitonic transition lines have been observed up to room temperature for the system in which exciton binding energy is only 1 meV largely due to very weak LO-phonon-electron coupling. Parabolically graded quantum wells were grown and used to study the band offset ratio at the InSb/Al_xIn_1-xSb heterointerface. A 0.62 +/- 0.04 offset ratio is extracted from the exciton transitions measured on samples with Al concentrations in the range 2% to 12%. Furthermore, deformation potentials in the system have been studied. The hydrostatic and the shear deformation potentials are determined simultaneously to be around -6.5 +/- 0.3 and -1.5 +/- 0.2, respectively.

Date Published: 29 November 2000
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 4086, Fourth International Conference on Thin Film Physics and Applications, (29 November 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.408459

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4086:
Fourth International Conference on Thin Film Physics and Applications
Junhao Chu; Pulin Liu; Yong Chang, Editor(s)