Intersubband absorption of strain-compensated Si1−xGex valence-band quantum wells with 0.7⩽x⩽0.85

Abstract

Strain-compensated, p-type SiGe quantum wells with a high Ge concentration of up to 85% have been grown on commercially available Si0.5Ge0.5 pseudosubstrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. Structural investigations by transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution x-ray reflection and diffraction showed that at a growth temperature around T=300°C, samples in excellent compliance with the design parameters, comparatively sharp interfaces, and negligible increase of growth-induced surface roughness can be grown. Comparison of polarization-dependent intersubband absorption measurements with simulated intersubband absorption spectra shows that for the quantum wells investigated in this work, the hole eigenstates, their in-plane dispersion, and the polarization-dependent intersubband transition matrix elements are accurately described by a strain-dependent, six-band k∙p Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian in which only one fitting parameter—the intersubband transition linewidth—is used.