Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Optical measurements have been performed on heavily carbon doped GaAs layers grown on semi-insulating GaAs substrates by MOMBE (metal-organic molecule beam epitaxy). Photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopy was used to measure the onsets of optical absorption in these GaAs:C epilayers. It was found that in samples with free carrier concentrations of 6.2×1019, 1.6×1020, and 4.1×1020cm−3, optical absorption begins at 1.40, 1.52, and 1.53 ev, respectively. Combined with the band gap narrowing data from photoluminescence (PL) spectra, we estimated Fermi level locations relative to the top of the valence band. We also measured reflectance in the near infrared region and estimated the effective mass of free holes using a classical two-oscillator model.