Experimental confirmation of a sum rule for room-temperature electroabsorption in GaAs-AlGaAs multiple quantum well structures

Measurements of the electric field dependence of room-temperature photocurrent in a GaAs-A10.4Ga0.6As multiple quantum well p-i-n diode have been carried out in the wavelength range 650–920 nm. Calculations of the field dependence of absorption from the photocurrent spectra show that the recently derived sum rule for electroabsorption in quantum wells holds to within 0.3%, for electric fields as high as 2×105 V/cm, provided that full account is taken of changes in absorption across the entire spectral region.