Midinfrared intersubband absorption in GaN/AlGaN superlattices on Si(111) templates

We report on the observation of midinfrared intersubband absorption in Si-doped GaN/AlGaN superlattices grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on semi-insulating GaN-on-Si(111) templates. TM-polarized absorption attributed to transition between the first two electronic levels in the quantum wells peaked in the range from 2 to 9 μm. The relative spectral width remains around 20% in the whole midinfrared spectral range. Doping is predicted to have a large influence on the intersubband absorption energy due to screening of polarization-induced internal electric field.