Strong heavy-to-light hole intersubband absorption in the valence band of carbon-doped GaAs/AlAs superlattices

We report strong mid-infrared absorption of in-plane polarized light due to heavy-to-light hole intersubband transitions in the valence band of C-doped GaAs quantum wells with AlAs barriers. The transition energies are well reproduced by theoretical calculations including layer inter-diffusion. The inter-diffusion length was estimated to be 8 ± 2 Å, a value that is consistent with electron microscopy measurements. These results highlight the importance of modeling the nanoscale structure of the semiconductors for accurately reproducing intra-band transition energies of heavy carriers such as the holes.