Light scattering determinations of band offsets in semiconductor heterostructures

Inelastic light scattering is used to determine the band offsets in semiconductor heterojunctions. The conduction-band discontinuity is obtained from energy level spacings measured in electronic light scattering spectra of photoexcited quantum-well heterostructures. The method is applied to GaAs-AlGaAs, GaSb-AlGaSb and InGaAs-GaAs heterojunctions. The light scattering determinations of band offsets are examined, and these results are compared with those obtained with more conventional methods. The impact of the light scattering results on chemical trends is considered, along with the influence of strain in the band-lineup problem.<
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