Microscopic reflection difference spectroscopy on semiconductor nanostructures

Several aspects of extending reflection difference spectroscopy (RDS) to sub-micrometer-, and possibly even nanometer-, resolution are discussed. Details of our recently developed µRDS technique, and an analysis of artifacts in non-ideal systems, are presented. We performed macroscopic and microscopic RDS experiments on GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells in several configurations, including the in-plane anisotropy for asymmetric quantum wells, and the confinement-induced anisotropy for in-plane wave propagation. The experimental results are interpreted in terms of empirical tight-binding calculations and phenomenological models