Optical properties of wurtzite AlxGa1-xN (x<0.1) parallel and perpendicular to the c axis -: art. no. 165203

Measurements of the dielectric function components parallel and perpendicular to the optical axis of wurtzite GaN are presented. The results are obtained on a multilayer AlxGa1-xN / GaN film grown on gamma -LiAlO2 which exhibits a very small amount of Al (x<0.1) in the uppermost layer. We use the spectroscopic ellipsometry to determine <epsilon>(omega) around the interband critical points of GaN up to 9 eV. Since the optical axis of the films are parallel to the surface, a separation of the different epsilon components is possible. The line shape of the measured tensor components e(parallel to) and epsilon (perpendicular to) is in very good agreement with results of recently published band-structure calculations. By comparison with the calculations we assign structures in the dielectric function to critical points in the Brillouin zone. In addition, a comparison with similar spectra for CdS and CdSe is presented, together with a discussion of possible spin-orbit splitting effects.