Contactless electromodulation spectroscopy of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with a two-dimensional electron gas: A comparison of photoreflectance and contactless electroreflectance

Photoreflectance (PR) and contactless electroreflectance (CER) spectroscopies have been applied to study optical transitions in undoped and Si-doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures at room temperature. Spectral features related to excitonic and band-to-band absorptions in GaN layer and band-to-band absorption in AlGaN layer have been resolved and analyzed. In addition, a broad spectral feature related to two-dimensional electron gas has been observed for the Si-doped heterostructure. It has been found that some of the mentioned optical transitions are not observed in CER spectra whereas they are very strong in PR spectra. This phenomenon is associated with different mechanisms of the modulation of built-in electric field in the investigated structure. A combination of PR and CER gives the possibility of a richer interpretation of both PR and CER spectra. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.