The magneto-optical properties of semiconductors and the band structure of gallium nitride

the wells, and observing a resonant phenomenon from an undoped GaN/Al sub x Ga sub 1 sub - sub x N single heterojunction. The oscillating peak intensity was understood in terms of the changing screening efficiency of the two-dimensional electron gas. Finally, many-body effects within an electron-hole plasma in ln sub x Al sub y Ga sub 1 sub - sub x sub - sub y As quantum wells have been explored to study the effects of mass renormalisation at carrier densities typically present in laser devices. A peak in the mass renormalisation confirms the importance of excitonic correlations in the excited plasma. This thesis has applied magneto-optical techniques to enable a better understanding of the band structure of gallium nitride, particularly the complex behaviour expected as a result of strong valence band mixing. Effective hole masses are deduced from free excitonic-like transitions observed in magneto-reflectivity, to give a heavy A hole mass of 1.3 m sub o and the first experimental suggestion of a light B band mass. From the Landau-level-like transitions, once the phonon correction to the electron dispersion is considered, the deduced A valence band dispersion confirms the heavy mass, but also shows a large non-parabolicity. The effect of strain on the valence band is seen through different hole contributions to the g factor in the donor-bound exciton luminescence from heteroepitaxial compared with homoepitaxial material. Not only are the g-factors sensitive to strain, but they also are sensitive to the state of binding, being very different for the B 1s and 2s excitonic states. Despite this, in lower dimensional structures the observation of an enhanced g-factor suggests a re-ordered valence band in GaN/Al sub x Ga sub 1 sub - sub x N quantum wells with respect to GaN epilayers, caused by a reversal of the states in the strained Al sub x Ga sub 1 sub - sub x N barriers. The role of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarisation was found to be important in both quantitatively understanding the increased exciton binding energy with the reduction of the dimensionality i