BAND OFFSETS AT HEAVILY STRAINED III-V INTERFACES

In consequence of the progress made in epitaxial techniques, strained layers are important parts of a few of today's optoelectronic devices. Much attention has thus been paid to the question of how the band lin e-up at a heterojunction is affected when one or both constituents are strained. This article reports experimental results on band offsets a t heavily strained heterojunctions of arsenide compounds. The InAs/GaA s and InAs/AlAs heterojunction valence-band offsets are markedly strai n dependent. Emphasis is placed on photoemission experiments and on th e modifications of the classical core-level method due to the strain. The results are compared with theoretical data from both 'model' theor ies and self consistent calculations.