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Temperature-dependent refractive index of AlGaAs for quantum-photonic devices near the bandgap

Published 2 weeks agoVersion 1arXiv:2512.02212

Authors

Moritz Langer, Sai Abhishikth Dhurjati, Martin Bauer, Yared Getahun Zena, Ahmad Rahimi, Riccardo Bassoli, Frank H. P. Fitzek, Oliver G. Schmidt, Caspar Hopfmann

Categories

physics.opticscond-mat.mtrl-sci

Abstract

We present an experimental method to determine the refractive index of $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ (x = 0.0 - 0.5) from 300 K to 4 K across the 500 - 1100 nm wavelength range. The values are extracted from spectroscopically observed microcavity resonances in thin $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ membranes embedded between fully and partially reflective gold mirrors. Refined Varshni and Paessler models are used to describe temperature-dependent bandgap shifts and material composition. By tracking resonance shifts and benchmarking against finite-difference time-domain simulations, we derive the dispersive optical response with high precision. This yields a quantitatively improved analytical expression for the refractive index of $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ matching the experimental results with a coefficient of determination as high as $R^2=0.993$, enabling accurate modeling near the band edge at cryogenic temperatures. The method is straightforward and broadly applicable to other semiconductor systems, offering a valuable tool for the design of micro photonic devices such as quantum light sources.

Temperature-dependent refractive index of AlGaAs for quantum-photonic devices near the bandgap

2 weeks ago
v1
9 authors

Categories

physics.opticscond-mat.mtrl-sci

Abstract

We present an experimental method to determine the refractive index of $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ (x = 0.0 - 0.5) from 300 K to 4 K across the 500 - 1100 nm wavelength range. The values are extracted from spectroscopically observed microcavity resonances in thin $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ membranes embedded between fully and partially reflective gold mirrors. Refined Varshni and Paessler models are used to describe temperature-dependent bandgap shifts and material composition. By tracking resonance shifts and benchmarking against finite-difference time-domain simulations, we derive the dispersive optical response with high precision. This yields a quantitatively improved analytical expression for the refractive index of $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ matching the experimental results with a coefficient of determination as high as $R^2=0.993$, enabling accurate modeling near the band edge at cryogenic temperatures. The method is straightforward and broadly applicable to other semiconductor systems, offering a valuable tool for the design of micro photonic devices such as quantum light sources.

Authors

Moritz Langer, Sai Abhishikth Dhurjati, Martin Bauer et al. (+6 more)

arXiv ID: 2512.02212
Published Dec 1, 2025

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