45° REFLECTOMETRY OF SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM WELLS

Abstract

We have applied the 45° reflectometry for the first time to study exciton-polaritons in quantum wells. The 45° reflectometry is a new polarization-modulation technique, which is based on the measurement of the difference [Formula: see text] between the p-polarization reflectivity (Rp) and the squared s-polarization reflectivity [Formula: see text] at an angle of incidence of 45°. We show that [Formula: see text] spectra may provide qualitatively new information on the exciton-polariton modes in a quantum well. These optical spectra turn out to be very sensitive to the zeros of the dielectric function along the quantum-well growth direction and, therefore, allow to identify the resonances associated with the Z exciton-polariton mode. We demonstrate that 45° reflectometry could be a powerful tool for studying Z exciton-polariton modes in near-surface quantum wells, which are difficult to observe in simple spectra of reflectivity Rp