Interband and intersubband absorption in HgCdTe multiple quantum wells

We present calculated and experimental interband and photoinduced intersubb and absorption spectra for undoped HgCdTe multiple quantum wells. The resul ts show that there is an enhancement of the interband absorption at energie s close to the barrier energy for electrons. The calculated interband absor ption, based on a full 8X8 k.p Kane model to obtain the electronic structur e, predicts that this absorption enhancement is caused by an increase in th e electron-hole joint density of stares due to band mixing for confined and continuous electron states. The photoinduced electron intersubband absorpt ion presents an asymmetric line shape due to the nonparabolic bands. The ca lculated spectra reproduce well the experimental results. [S0163-1829(99)04 215-0].