Direct Demonstration of a Misfit Strain-Generated Electric Field in a [111] Growth Axis Zincblende Heterostructure.

We report the first direct demonstration of a strain-generated built-in electric field in a (111) oriented strained layer heterostructure. We present a model which describes the accommodation of the misfit strain in a lattice mismatched quantum well, and the resulting generation of a longitudinal electric field via the piezoelectric effect. On a (111)B GaAs substrate, we grew the quantum well in the intrinsic region of a p-i-n diode such that the strain-generated electric field in the quantum well opposes the weaker built-in electric field of the diode. Under reverse bias operation, photoconductivity measurements show a quadratic blue shift of the quantum well electroabsorption peaks, in contrast to the red shifts normally observed in the quantum confined Stark effect. The measured blue shifts demonstrate an electric field strength which agrees with theory to within the accuracy of the measured sample characteristics.