Electro-Optical Properties of II-VI Superlattices

We show how to compute electro-optical spectra of semiconductor superlattices in the region of interband electronic transitions. The method uses the microscopic calculation of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions and the macroscopic real density matrix approach to compute the electromagnetic fields and susceptibilities. The electron-hole screened Coulomb potential is adapted and the valence band structure is taken into account in the cylindrical approximation, thus separating light- and heavy-hole motions. We calculate the electro-optical functions, including the optical Stokes parameters and ellipsometric functions for the case of oblique incidence. Results are given for Zn$\text{}_{1-x}$Cd$\text{}_{x}$Se/ZnSe superlattices and a good agreement with experiments is obtained.