Superlattices and Other Heterostructures

Superlattices and Other Heterostructures deals with optical properties of superlattices and quantum-well structures with emphasis on phenomena governed by crystal symmetries. After a brief introduction to group theory and symmetries, methods to calculate spectra of electrons, excitions and phonons in heterostructures are discussed. Further chapters cover absorption and reflection of light under interband transitions, cyclotron and electron spin-resoncance, light scattering by free and bound carriers as well as by optical and acoustic phonons, polarized photoluminescence, optical spin orientation of electrons and excitions, and nonlinear optical and photogalvanic effects.

This volume considers a variety of optical phoneomena associated with reflection, absorption, scattering, emission and nonlinear mixing of light waves in semiconductor superlattices and quantum well structures. It presents heterostructure optics, symmetry theory and band theory. The reader is introduced to the complex world of optical phenomena in semiconductor nanostructures.

1 Quantum Wells and Superlattices.- 2 Crystal Symmetry.- 2.1 Symmetry Operations, Groups.- 2.2 Point-Group Classification.- 2.3 Space Groups.- 2.4 Group Representations, Characters.- 2.5 Point-Group Representations.- 2.6 Spinor Representations.- 2.7 Representations of Space Groups.- 2.8Invariance Under Time Inversion.- 2.9 Selection Rules.- 2.10 Determination of Linearly Independent Components of Material Tensors.- 3 Electron Spectrum in Crystals, Quantum Wells and Superlattices.- 3.1 The k-p Method.- 3.2 The Effective-Mass Method; Deformation Potential.- 3.3 Method of Invariants.- 3.4 Electron and Hole Spectrum in Diamond-and Zincblende-Type Cubic Crystals.- 3.5 Electron Spectra of Quantum Wells and Superlattices.- 3.6 Hole Spectrum in Quantum Wells and Superlattices for Degenerate Bands.- 3.7 Deformed and Strained Superlattices.- 3.8 Quantum Wells and Superlattices in a Magnetic Field.- 3.9 Spectrum of Quantum Wells and Superlattices in an Electric Field.- 4 Vibrational Spectra of Crystals and Superlattices Electron-Phonon Interaction.- 4.1 Normal Vibrations: Distribution in Irreducible Representations.- 4.2 Vibrational Spectra of Superlattices.- 4.3 Electron-Phonon Interaction.- 5 Localized Electron States and Excitons in Heterostructures.- 5.1 Shallow Impurity Centers.- 5.2 Localized States at Superlattice Defects.- 5.3 Excitons.- 5.4 Exchange Splitting of Exciton Levels.- 6 Interband Optical Transitions.- 6.1 Optical Superlattices.- 6.2 Interband Transitions and Dielectric Susceptibility of a Periodic Heterostructure.- 6.3 Coulomb Interaction Between the Electron and the Hole.- 6.4 Exciton Polaritons in an Optical Superlattice.- 6.5 Light Reflection.- 6.6 Electro-Optical Effects in Interband Transitions.- 6.7 Magneto-Optical Spectra.- 7 ntraband Transitions.- 7.1 Cyclotron Resonance and Effective Electron Mass.- 7.2 Intersubband Absorption.- 7.3 Electron-Spin Resonance.- 7.4 IR Reflection in an Undoped Superlattice.- 8 Light Scattering.- 8.1 Theory of Light Scattering in Semiconductors.- 8.2 Scattering by Intersubband Excitations.- 8.3 Scattering by Acoustical Phonons with a Folded Dispersion Law.- 8.4 Scattering by Optical Phonons in Heterostructures.- 8.5 Acceptor Spin-Flip Raman Scattering.- 9 Polarized Luminescence in Quantum Wells and Superlattices.- 9.1 Luminescence as a Tool to Study Electronic Spectra and Kinetic Processes in Two-Dimensional Systems.- 9.2 Luminescence in the Quantum Hall Regime, Quantum Beats.- 9.3 Optical Spin Orientation and Alignment of Electron Momenta.- 9.4 Optical Orientation and Alignment of Excitons.- 9.5 Polarized Luminescence of Excitons and Impurities in an External Magnetic Field.- 10 Nonlinear Optics.- 10.1 Two-Photon Absorption.- 10.2 Photoreflectance.- 10.3 Diffraction from a Light-Induced Spatial Grating.- 10.4 Third-Harmonic Generation.- 10.5 Linear and Circular Photogalvanic (Photovoltaic) Effects.- 10.6 Current of Optically Oriented Electrons.- 10.7 Photon Drag Current.