BAND-OFFSET DETERMINATION IN ZN1-XCDXSE ZNSE MULTIPLE-QUANTUM WELLS/

We report the experimental determination of conduction-band discontinu ities in Zn1-xCdxSe/ZnSe multiple quantum well structures grown by mol ecular beam epitaxy and pseudomorphically strained to ZnSe. The values have been obtained from electrical and intersubband absorption measur ements for 0.23 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.33. Th e offset is found to vary from 165 +/- 14 to 253 +/- 14 meV with incre asing cadmium concentration in the examined range. The resulting valen ce-band discontinuity yields rather poor light-hole confinement. This will be shown to affect the linear optical properties of quantum well heterostructures.