Observation of strong anisotropic forbidden transitions in (001) InGaAs/GaAs single-quantum well by reflectance-difference spectroscopy and its behavior under uniaxial strain

The strong anisotropic forbidden transition has been observed in a series of InGaAs/GaAs single-quantum well with well width ranging between 3 nm and 7 nm at 80 K. Numerical calculations within the envelope function framework have been performed to analyze the origin of the optical anisotropic forbidden transition. It is found that the optical anisotropy of this transition can be mainly attributed to indium segregation effect. The effect of uniaxial strain on in-plane optical anisotropy (IPOA) is also investigated. The IPOA of the forbidden transition changes little with strain, while that of the allowed transition shows a linear dependence on strain.PACS 78.66.Fd, 78.20.Bh, 78.20.Fm.